Pirelli have unveiled their latest compounds for the 2013 season during a press conference at its Milan headquaters on Tuesday.
The official and sole tyre supplier to Formula 1 has once again softened its entire range in order to liven up the racing after the teams got to grips with the tyres toward the end of the year.
The company hopes to see a minimum of ‘at least two pit stops per race’ thanks to the ‘completely revolutionised’ P-Zero range.
The hard tyre, which was previously identified by its silver stripe and branding, will now be orange to reduce confusion between it and the medium tyre (white).
Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery hopes the changes will ‘provide a fresh challenge’ for the teams.
“The 2013 season continues the philosophy adopted by Pirelli last year in evolving the original 2011 range of Formula 1 tyres,” he said. “The goal is to continuously set new challenges for the drivers and to ensure that all the teams start the new season on a level playing field when it comes to the tyres.
“Through accumulating more information with each Grand Prix last year, the teams eventually fully understood the tyres, after a spectacular start with seven winners from the first seven races. The result at the end of the year was races with less competition and sometimes only one pit stop.
“This phenomenon was also observed in 2011, disappointing many fans and prompting some of the teams to ask us to continue developing our tyres further this year, in order to provide a fresh challenge. Our 2013 range of tyres mixes up the cards once more to help overtaking and ensure two to three pit stops per race.”
The Italian supplier also believes, following simulations, that the tyres will be on average half a second quicker per lap, with a shorter heating cycle required to bring them to temperature. Half a second will also cover the gap between each compound.
As before, the super soft tyre will be red, the soft yellow and the medium white. The only change comes in the form of the orange hard tyre. Both the wets and inters remain blue and green respectively.
