Pirelli has confirmed which compounds it has made available for the Spanish, Monaco, Canadian and Azerbaijan races this season, and which of those must be used during qualifying and the race.
Pirelli will take its three hardest compounds – the soft, medium and hard – to the Spanish Grand Prix in May and have selected the soft compound as the mandatory qualifying tyre. This means every driver must save a set of the soft tyre to use during Q3 – those that don't make it through to the final top-ten shoot-out can use that set during the race, whilst those that do, must return it to Pirelli at the end of the qualifying session.
Meanwhile the medium and hard are the elected race compounds, meaning a driver must use at least one of these compounds during the race.
In contrast, Monaco will see the three softest compounds in action – the ultrasoft, supersoft and soft – with the former the elected qualifying tyre. That's the same for the Canadian GP – with both races being held on street circuits, which generally produce less wear due to lower cornering speeds.
The Azerbaijan GP, held on Baku's streets, has higher wear due to its high-speed layout and will therefore see the supersoft, soft and medium in use. Again, the softest of the three has been chosen as the qualifying tyre.
The teams are free to choose the remaining 10 sets (excluding the first five events this year, so until Spain, where Pirelli allocate the sets) thus making up 13 sets in total for the weekend.
