Pirelli has taken an aggressive approach to its tyre selections for the Mexican Grand Prix, the antepenultimate race on the 2018 Formula 1 calendar.
The sole tyre supplier will make available its three softest compounds, the red Supersoft, purple Ultrasoft and pink Hypersoft – the same combination used in Monaco and Canada, where tyre degradation is low.
Mexico tends to see slightly higher degradation than both Monaco and Canada as it features a high-speed sector two which is made up of high-speed sweeping turns, however sectors one and three feature almost exclusively low-speed corners.
Last year Pirelli used the Soft, Supersoft and Ultrasoft, therefore it has chosen to take a more aggressive approach by introducing the Hypersoft, which is essentially two steps softer than 2017's Ultrasoft.
As per the rules, one set of the softest available compound (Hypersoft) must be set aside for use only in Q3, while one set of the other two compounds must be run for one stint of the race.
Teams and drivers are free to choose their remaining compounds for the other 10 sets, giving a total allocation of 13.
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