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Pirelli considers name changes for F1 tyres

Published on 25 May 2018 10:22
10
By: Jeroen Jonkers

Pirelli has admitted it could change the way its F1 tyres are named.

Currently, the Italian company supplies three out of six available compounds at each grand prix - 'hard', 'medium', 'soft', 'supersoft', 'ultrasoft' or 'hypersoft'.

They are colour-coded, but some believe the naming system is too complicated.

"The FIA and FOM are asking us to use only three names for the compounds -- hard, medium and soft. It's possible that's what we'll do next year," Pirelli chief Mario Isola said in Monaco.

"The colour markings will be the same at all races even though the compounds will actually be different, because we can't use the same tyres in Monaco, Silverstone and Suzuka," he added.

So instead of the convoluted names at present, the full compound range next year will simply be known as A, B, C, D and so on, and Pirelli will continue to release full technical details.

"Perhaps that will make it easier for fans to understand the situation with the tyres," said Isola.

"The decision has not been made yet, but we have said that we are ready to analyse the possibility. In principle it is possible. To do the colouring is not such a big problem."

Hepp

Posts: 200

My solution is even easier for the fans and pundits. Keep the technical specs between the manufacturer and the teams. The Manufacturer picks the compounds for each track, the teams pick their lot. The sidewall lettering is then coloured White for Harder, Yellow for Middle-range, and Red for Softer.

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May 25 2018 - 12:35

F1 News Pirelli

Replies (10)

Hepp

Posts: 200
My solution is even easier for the fans and pundits. Keep the technical specs between the manufacturer and the teams. The Manufacturer picks the compounds for each track, the teams pick their lot. The sidewall lettering is then coloured White for Harder, Yellow for Middle-range, and Red for Softer.
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- May 25 2018 - 12:35
calle.itw

Posts: 8,527
A,B C D are even worse...
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- May 25 2018 - 12:39
F1_IS_Dead

Posts: 123
Don't forget the "M" for Mercedes tyres.
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- May 25 2018 - 13:13
Bhurt

Posts: 320
It's good that they're dumbing things down for the American audience that doesn't watch the sport. I mean color coding and clearly defined names are far too complicated to keep track of.

Bring back Bernie. For all his faults, he wasn't American.
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- May 25 2018 - 16:00
- calle.itw
  
  Posts: 8,527
  Implying a corrupt little imp who were systematically killing off historic tracks was better than this... Mind, I'll agree this is beyond stupid, they are actually legit worsening the situation...
  A: So they are using compound B now?
  D: No, its C.
  A: And C are?...
  D: The softs, A.
  A: But I thought A were the softs...
  D: Right, C are the hard tyres.
  But this isnt because they are 'murican. 'member, Annie Lööf's "In Sweden, its illegal to commit crimes"? A bright girl, that one. The problem is them only listening to their audience half of the time, and thats the same issues any department have with a new head. Give um time.
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  May 25 2018 - 16:41
- Bhurt
  
  Posts: 320
  Haha, don't even get me started on politics (especially Annie Lööf)..
  
  I believe part of the problem IS that they're American. They're desperate to "grow the sport" in a market that doesn't care about the sport. So in order to succeed they're making all these stupid changes to attract "new fans". This has been done in countless other sports where catering to the new fans leads them to lose their actual fans. It's a brilliant exercise in futility.
  
  Instead of desperately trying to find new fans, why not go the other way instead and purifying the sport for the true race fans?
  
  All this change does is rename stuff in a less obvious manner, confusing those who have learned the current (more logical) names, without in any way making anything more clear.
  
  How will the tyres be introduced next season? For this race we have a soft, a medium and a hard compound just like we did last race. However for this race the soft is a B, the medium a D and the hard an E unlike last weekend where we had A, B and C. So B was medium last week but is soft this week, while it actually is the Ultrasoft so in actuality it's the second softest compound even though it's the softest this week and was the second hardest last week.
  
  Much clearer. Well thought out.
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  May 25 2018 - 18:38
- calle.itw
  
  Posts: 8,527
  P.S: I Lööf you. ;)
  
  Maybe in part it might be a cultural thing, but my point is that we can pick our pains, and I'd much rather have a company that allows us to retain the good races while making some stupid things here and there than one so eager to milk them dry while also giving us races on exciting tracks like Abu Dhabi (even holding the final there, Oooh Ecclestone!). Corporate people are corporate people, its tradition that they must have some sorta stupidity going on, and I'd much rather have... Whatever this is... Than whatever Ecclestone was up to.
  
  Now I like them wanting to make the sport accessible, Im all for that, but limit Pirelli's tyre production rather than making up "ABCD" if you want the tyre bits simplified. Just keep them as softs, or maybe even "Faster vs Durable" or something that actually explains what they do? I feel they are fumbling a bit with which way they should start things off, and thats not really unique to Liberty, and I'll give them that they are trying and, IMO, getting most things right... (ButgoodlordthatMiamitrack)...
  
  But I like what Liberty is doing with F1TV, I think thats a promising concept, and please let it kill off that blasted Viasat monopoly. Those costs are just not cool.
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  May 25 2018 - 22:43
f1dave

Posts: 782
I know how I'd name Pirelli tyres and it has nothind to do with the compounds.
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- May 25 2018 - 17:34
ajpennypacker

Posts: 2,475
Whatever change they make, I'm sure the fans will make a huge deal out of it, talk about how awful Pirelli is, talk about the "good old days," then forget about it, and look for the next thing Pirelli does to whine about.
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- May 25 2018 - 19:28
blade

Posts: 341
FFS !!!! I don't think it's that complicated and does the FIA really get a lot of noise about this - F1 is SUPPOSED to be cutting edge technology, so dumping this down in any way is the WRONG MOVE - pls treat us with some respect !
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- May 26 2018 - 11:34