Pirelli has confirmed that it will add an additional slick tyre compound to its range for the 2023 Formula 1 season.
The new compound will be named the C0, accompanying the current C1 – C5 range that has been used since the 2019 season.
However, the C0 compound will not be new, as the old C1 is simply undergoing a name change.
The sixth compound will be a new C1 tyre, which will offer more grip to the drivers in 2023 compared to the old-spec version.
“We have introduced a new C1 compound and have decided to homologate for next year six compounds, not five,” said Mario Isola, Pirelli’s Head of F1.
“The current C1 that worked quite well at, for example, Zandvoort and Silverstone, we didn’t want to eliminate.
“We decided to introduce a new C1 with more grip compared to the old C1, so the old C1 is now the C0 to avoid renaming all the others.
“We have the new C1 and then the C2, C3, C4 and C5 are the same as this year.
“The new C1 is much closer to the C2. I would say the only target we didn’t achieve was a new C3 more in the centre between C2 and C4.”
Pirelli brings three tyre compounds to each race weekend, which allows teams to vary their race-day strategies.
But Isola denies that the sixth compound will result in bigger steps between the tyres that are delivered to a grand prix event.
“In some cases we can have a step between the compounds we want to select but not always,” he said. “It’s an option we have in our pocket that we keep.
“I believe we have an idea of what we want to allocate for next season. We want to keep the flexibility to change, or to fine-tune, this allocation according to the result of the pre-season test in Bahrain and the first races.
“We will define soon the compounds for the first three or four races, obviously because we need to manufacture and sea-freight the tyres. But then we want to keep a bit of flexibility to decide for the second part of the championship.
“But it doesn’t mean you will have two or three steps in between.”
Pirelli conducted a post-season test at the Yas Marina Circuit on Tuesday, compiling its final on-track data of the year.
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