Pirelli to debut new exciting tyre allocation at the Hungaroring
Formula One’s sole tyre manufacturer Pirelli will introduce a new tyre allocation at this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix, mandating different slick compounds for each of the three Saturday’s qualifying session. F1Technical's senior writer Balázs Szabó reports on the changes.
As Formula One approaches the final leg of the season ahead of the summer shutdown, Pirelli will spice up the proceedings by introducing a new tyre rule for qualifying.
At the twisty Hungaroring, drivers will be allocated with the three softest compounds: the C3 will be used as P Zero White hard, C4 as P Zero Yellow medium and C5 as P Zero Red soft. This will be a step softer allocation than last year.
The choice is set to spice things up as Hungary often features high ambient and track temperatures which can lead to the overheating of the tyres. With heat expected for Sunday, the aggressive tyre choice means that the race could turn into a challenge for thermal management of the tyres.
Commenting on the race weekend, Pirelli’s Motorsport Director Mario Isola said: "The Hungarian Grand Prix has become a classic event of the Formula 1 summer season, and as such the air and asphalt temperatures, which are usually very high, are the main features.
“This puts the drivers, cars and tyres to the test, not least because the twisting nature of the track does not allow anyone or anything to catch their breath. There’s a fairly long pit straight, which provides the only real overtaking opportunity under braking into the first right-hand corner.
“Then there are 13 more corners – seven right-handers and six left-handers – on a circuit that is second only to Monte Carlo in terms of slowest average speed; to the extent that the cars use similar downforce settings to Monaco. With so many slow corners, traction is one of the key factors for good performance and the biggest risk is tyre overheating.”
What does the new rule dictate?
Pirelli wanted to debut a new tyre rule that is referred to as Alternative Tyre Allocation at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. However, with the cancellation of the Imola race, the new tyre allocation will make its debut at this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix.
The Budapest race will host the debut of the Alternative Tyre Allocation with the new rule set to be trialled again at the Italian Grand Prix during the first weekend in September.
Under the alternative tyre allocation rules, drivers will have to complete each qualifying session with just one mandatory slick compound. Teams must use the hard compound in Q1, medium in Q2 and soft in Q3. If qualifying is wet, teams have a free choice of compounds as usual.
The new rule will also reduce the number of tyre sets available for each car to 11, instead of the 13 available for a normal race weekend.
Each driver will have three sets of hard tyres, four sets of medium tyres and four sets of soft tyres. The number of wet tyres remains the same: three sets of full wets and four sets of intermediates, with an extra set of intermediates authorised if it rains on Friday or adverse weather is predicted for Saturday.
On Friday, one set of tyres must be returned at the end of each free practice session. A further two sets must be returned on Saturday after FP3. This leaves seven sets of tyres for qualifying and the race, of which at least one set of hard tyres and one set of medium tyres must be kept for the race.
Speaking about the new tyre rule, Isola added: “A new tyre allocation for qualifying (known as ATA, or ‘Alternative Tyre Allocation’) will be tried out for the first time, with the obligation to use just the hard in Q1, medium in Q2 and soft in Q3 if conditions stay dry.
“Both these changes, at least on paper, should lead to a wider range of options, particularly in terms of strategy. The ATA also saves two sets of dry tyres compared to the traditional format (using 11 sets instead of 13) and it will be run again at the Italian Grand Prix in Monza. After that, the FIA, F1 and the teams will decide whether or not to adopt it for next season,” the Italian concluded.
