Pirelli has confirmed the tyre compounds it will make available for the opening eight races of the 2020 Formula 1 calendar, with the Silverstone double-header getting different specifications.
F1 released an eight-round European based calendar last week with potentially further European rounds to be added before multiple ‘flyaway’ races – although these remain unconfirmed at this stage.
It had been proposed that the two double-header events in Austria and Great Britain receive different compounds for each weekend, in order to shake-up race strategies over fears they could be boring re-runs after plans for reversed-grid races were rejected by Mercedes.
Pirelli has opted not to do this in Austria, which will use the same compounds for both races, but will provide a different set of tyres for the second Silverstone round, which will be known as the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix.
The British GP – the first race – will use the hardest three compounds in the white-walled C1 (Hard), yellow-walled C2 (Medium) and red-walled C3 (Soft).
Whereas the race a week later on August 9 will use the C2, C3 and C4 – a step softer. This is the same allocation as both Austrian rounds, Hungary, Belgium and Italy, whereas Spain will use the same three as the second British round.
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