In less than two weeks, Formula 1 will kick off a new season and, for the first three Grands Prix of the campaign, Pirelli have already revealed their tire selection.
A few days before the start of the second and final days of pre-season testing, the Milan-based company, Formula 1’s sole tire supplier, announced the compounds it will take to Sakhir, home of the Bahrain Grand Prix; Jeddah, home of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix and Melbourne, home of the Australian Grand Prix.
For the first race of the season in Bahrain , the same circuit where the last three days of testing will take place this week, Pirelli will run the following compounds: The hardest (white) will be C1 , the medium (yellow) will be C2 and softer (red) will be the C3 , which means that they have opted for the harder range of 2022.
For the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, the second round of the calendar, the C2 will be the hardest compound, the C3 the medium and the C4 the softest, the central range of the Italian brand for this year.
However, the most interesting selection is the one made for Melbourne’s return to the calendar after two absence courses. At the Australian GP, teams will have a weirder range than usual at their disposal, with C2 being the hardest, C3 the medium and C5 the softest compound.
As you can see, Pirelli has made a mixture of compounds by going from C2 to C3 and then to C5, skipping C4, something that never happened during the last season in 2021.
It should be remembered that in these first three races the new Pirelli 18-inch tires will make their debut, which reach the highest category of motorsport together with the entry into force of the new technical rules for single-seaters.
