Spa experiment: Pirelli opts for compound gap to boost drama

Pirelli has unveiled its tyre compound selections for the Formula 1 races leading up to the sport’s summer break in early August 2025, introducing a bold strategy shift for the British and Belgian Grands Prix.

The choices reflect Pirelli’s response to the season’s predominantly one-stop races, aiming to diversify strategic options and enhance race unpredictability, particularly with a novel compound gap at Spa-Francorchamps.

For the Red Bull Ring and Hungaroring, Pirelli has retained last year’s compounds: C3 (hard), C4 (medium), and C5 (soft).

These selections suit the technical demands of both circuits, where the balance between grip and durability has historically favored predictable one-stop strategies.

By maintaining continuity, Pirelli ensures teams can rely on familiar data while focusing on setup optimization for these high-downforce tracks.

Softer Tyres for Silverstone

At Silverstone, Pirelli has opted for a softer compound range – C2 (hard), C3 (medium), and C4 (soft) – a departure from previous years when the C3 served as the soft tyre.

This choice, described by Pirelli as a “bold step,” acknowledges Silverstone’s high-speed corners, which stress tyres significantly, as the delaminations that occurred in 2020 highlighted.

“In Silverstone, the challenge will be to manage the medium, which for the past two years actually served as the soft,” Pirelli stated. The decision promises to intensify strategic complexity while placing greater emphasis on tyre management across high-speed corners like Copse and Maggotts-Becketts.

A New Strategic Layer at Spa

Spa-Francorchamps at the end of July will serve as a live experiment for a more radical approach. While the medium (C3) and soft (C4) selections remain unchanged from 2024, the hard compound jumps a step down to the C1 – rather than following the usual sequential C2 designation.

This non-linear selection is designed to widen the performance gap between compounds and disrupt the predictability of one-stop strategies.

“Those opting for the hard, with the idea of stopping just once, will have to take into consideration the performance difference that now separates the C1 from the C2, which was last year’s hard,” Pirelli noted.

With Spa also hosting a sprint weekend, the introduction of this ‘compound gap’ adds an extra twist to strategy formulation across both race formats.

Isola: Creating Strategic Tension, Not Forced Two-Stops

Pirelli motorsport director Mario Isola emphasized that the goal isn’t to force two-stop races, but to make one-stoppers less automatic.

“They always find a way to apply a strategy on one stop,” Isola said earlier this month during the Emilia-Romagna GP weekend.

“It’s not that we’re trying to push them to have a two-stop strategy… but with the three compounds that are so close, they always try to use the hard and the medium to move to a one-stop.”

Read also:

• Tech F1i: Full team-by-team Spanish GP upgrades

By increasing the delta between the C1 and C3 compounds, Pirelli aims to make one-stop races less advantageous – slower but more consistent – versus two-stoppers which could favor those with stronger pace and overtaking potential.

The Belgian Grand Prix, therefore, will effectively serve as a testing ground for this theory.

How teams respond to these changes will determine whether Pirelli’s more aggressive approach to tyre strategy becomes a broader trend in the second half of the season.

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via X and Facebook