Pirelli has revealed the tyre compounds it will bring to the first three races of the 2024 Formula 1 season, including its softest allocation to the Australian Grand Prix.
The Italian manufacturer, which extended its deal as F1’s official tyre tender until 2027, recently confirmed that it would retain an identical tyre construction for next year.
The company had allowed teams to test a modified C2 compound in Japan and then an updated C4 tyre in Mexico, but Pirelli abandoned plans to introduce any changes.
However, Pirelli did tweak the specification of the current tyres midway through 2023 at the British Grand Prix to counter the ever-increasing downforce levels of the cars.
With the C0 compound now removed from its selection for 2024, Pirelli will take the C1, C2 and C3 tyres – now the hardest in its range – to the season-opening race in Bahrain.
Meanwhile, the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix a week later will also see the same tyres used for this year’s round, a step softer than Bahrain with the C2, C3 and C4 allocated.
But Pirelli has elected to go one step softer than 2023 for F1’s annual visit to the Albert Park Circuit, with the C3, C4 and now the C5 tyres to be made available to the teams.
Despite the regulations remaining stable for next season, Pirelli is not concerned by Red Bull’s insistence there is more performance still to be unlocked in this rules cycle.
“If I look at the simulations we received in June, with the current construction we can cope with this level of load,” Pirelli’s Head of Car Racing and F1 Mario Isola told Autosport.
“But this year, for example, they have been able to achieve a higher level of performance or downforce compared to simulations earlier in the year.”
“We are going to receive new simulations at the beginning of December, and obviously, we will analyse them because they are probably more accurate compared to what we had in June.”
The F1 Commission confirmed during the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix weekend that the current number of tyres available to each team on a given weekend (13) will be maintained.
The meeting also decided that the Alternative Tyre Allocation (ATA) format, which was trialled at two weekends during the past season, will not be used again in 2024.
