Tyres

In accordance with the regulations laid down by the FIA (Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile) Pirelli will supply two different types of tyre designed for two different types of use.
The first type of tyre has been designed for dry surfaces, while the second is for wet surfaces.

THE SLICK TYRES 

Dry weather tyres, known as slicks, are characterised by a tread pattern that is devoid of blocks or channels. They come in four compounds: supersoft, soft, medium and hard.

The different compounds mean that the tyres are well suited to a wide variety of circuits, according to the type of asphalt, the number and severity of the corners, and the top speed on the straights. This allows the teams to make use of an ample range of strategies.

• Supersoft
  P Zero™ Red, a supersoft for street circuits. Of the four slick tyres, this is the only one to remain unchanged from the 2011 season. It showed itself to be particularly versatile, offering high peaks of performance over slow and twisty circuits that are characterised by slippery asphalt and low lateral loadings. This is the ideal compound for street circuits or semipermanent facilities.
• Soft
  P Zero™ Yellow, softer with less blistering. The new soft tyre is well suited to circuits with low tyre wear. It is designed to offer a high level of grip coupled with a significant amount of degradation, resulting in a comparatively short lifespan that will give the teams a greater number of options with pit stop strategy and even closer racing. Compared to the equivalent tyre in 2011, the new soft offers greater thermal resistance to reduce the risk of blistering. Tested for the first time during free practice at last year’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the new soft tyre is set to be one of the most frequent nominations in 2012, together with the new medium tyre. This combination offers a great deal of flexibility and also a rapid warm-up time.
• Medium
  P Zero™ White, the medium tyre that is well suited to all conditions. This extremely versatile tyre adapts itself well to all sorts of track conditions, particularly when asphalt and circuit characteristics are variable. The brand new P Zero™ White is intended as the ‘option’ tyre on tracks with high temperatures or abrasive surfaces and as the ‘prime’ tyre on tracks that are less severe with fewer demands on the tyres. The new medium compound was tried out last year during free practice at the German Grand Prix and made another appearance during the young driver test in Abu Dhabi.
• Hard
  P Zero™ Silver, hard but not inflexible. The new hard tyre guarantees maximum durability and the least degradation, together with optimal resistance to the most extreme conditions, but is not as hard as the equivalent tyre last year. The P Zero™ Silver is ideal for long runs, taking more time to warm up, as well as being suited to circuits with abrasive asphalt, big lateral forces and high temperatures. The new P Zero™ Silver was tested at the Barcelona circuit by Pirelli’s test driver Lucas di Grassi, and is the only one of the new compounds that the regular drivers have not yet experienced.
  
  

WET WEATHER TYRES 

Wet weather tyres, characterised by grooves in the tread pattern, are split into two types: full wets and intermediates.

The full wet tyres can be easily recognised by the deep grooves in the tread pattern and sipes to drain off water on wet asphalt. The intermediates feature channels that are less deep and are designed for damp or slightly wet surfaces, as well as uncertain weather conditions.

• Intermediate
  Cinturato™ Green, the intermediate for light rain. After the excellent performances seen from this tyre throughout the 2011 season during particularly demanding races such as the Canadian Grand Prix, Pirelli’s engineers decided not to make any changes to the intermediate tyres. The shallower grooves compared to the full wet tyres mean that the intermediates do not drain away as much water, making this the ideal choice for wet or drying asphalt, without compromising on performance.
• Wet
  Cinturato™ Blue, the full wets. Of the two wet tyres, only the full wet has been significantly altered compared to the 2011 version. The changes relate to the rear tyres, which use a different profile in order to optimise the dispersal of water in case of aquaplaning and guarantee a greater degree of driving precision. Characterised by deep grooves, similar to those seen on a road car tyre, the wet tyres are designed to expel more than 60 litres of water per second at a speed of 300 kph: six times more than a road car tyre, which disperses about 10 litres per second at a much lower speed.
  
  
  

  

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

From: Pirelli.com

PIRELLI : SOFTER COMPOUNDS AND NEW CONSTRUCTIONS

MORE EXTREME PERFORMANCE FOR 2013 FORMULA ONE TYRES

AND AT LEAST TWO PIT STOPS PER RACE

A FASTER WARM-UP, LAP TIMES COME DOWN BY 0.5 SECONDS,

MORE THERMAL DEGRADATION: THE KEY CHARACTERISTICS

OF THE NEW FORMULA ONE P ZERO AND CINTURATO TYRES

NEW TYRES COMPLETELY REDESIGNED BY PIRELLI’S ENGINEERS,

WITH A PERFORMANCE GAP OF AT LEAST 0.5 SECONDS BETWEEN

THE DIFFERENT COMPOUNDS

THE GOAL: MORE PIT STOPS AND MORE OVERTAKING

THE NEW HARD GETS A NEW COLOUR: ORANGE

PIRELLI 2013 TYRES

Milan, January 23, 2013. Pirelli begins the 2013 Formula One season with a completely revolutionised P Zero range for dry weather and Cinturato range for wet weather. These new tyres have been developed according to the wishes of the teams and the latest rules from world motorsport’s governing body, the FIA. The most recent evolutions benefit the compounds, which have become softer, the structures, which are more flexible and the shoulders, which have been reinforced.

The objective of all these innovations, which work closely together, is to improve performance and increase thermal degradation, to ensure at least two pit stops per race and open up more strategic options for all the teams.

The sidewalls also look different, with colours that are more immediately striking and a brand new marking: orange, which comes in place of last year’s silver to denote the hardest compound.

“The 2013 season continues the philosophy adopted by Pirelli last year in evolving the original 2011 range of Formula One tyres,” commented Pirelli’s motorsport director Paul Hembery. “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 with something different. Our 2013 range of tyres mixes up the cards once more to help overtaking and ensure two to three pit stops per race.”

Computer Simulations And Thousands Of Kilometres Of Testing

The development of the 2013 P Zero and Cinturato ranges included thousands of computer simulations carried out by Pirelli’s engineers throughout the 2012 season, using sophisticated predictive software. These simulations, which were backed up by laboratory tests on the compounds, have been integrated with data collected during grands prix and the seven thousand so kilometres covered during five private tests with the Renault R30. Pirelli’s test car was driven by Jaime Alguersuari and Lucas Di Grassi at Jerez, Spa, Barcelona (for two sessions) and Paul Ricard (for a wet weather test).

The teams were able to sample the new P Zero Orange hard tyre during free practice in Brazil last November, but the debut for the complete new range will come at the first official Formula One test in Jerez at the beginning of February.

Higher Temperatures, Softer Sidewalls, Increased Performance

The defining characteristic of the 2013 Pirelli Formula One tyres is softer compounds all round, which will allow them to reach peak operating temperature faster and deliver lap times that are around 0.5 seconds faster than last year.

Swift evolution of Pirelli’s tyre technology has allowed the new hard tyre – the PZero Orange – to be roughly equivalent to last year’s medium compound.The tyre sidewalls are softer this year, but the shoulders are stronger. The effect of this is faster thermal degradation while the tyre’s peak performance window is extended. Traction is also improved, which translates into faster lap times, especially on the exit of corners and in combined traction areas, from braking to acceleration and vice versa.

The performance gap between the different compounds is now in excess of 0.5 seconds per lap, as opposed to last year when the difference was often smaller: particularly in the latter half of the season. Faster thermal degradation and a bigger performance gap between the compounds will encourage overtaking throughout each race.

11 Sets Of Tyres Per Car Assigned By BarCode

The Formula One tyres are designed at the Pirelli laboratories in Milan and produced at a dedicated facility in Izmit, Turkey. Having passed quality control and other checks, the tyres are then sent to Pirelli’s logistics hub in Didcot (United Kingdom) from which they are shipped out to all the different circuits. Once more, each Formula One car will have 11 sets of tyres available for the weekend, made up of six sets of the harder and five sets of the softer compound. In total Pirelli takes about 1800 tyres to each race.

Tyres are allocated to each team at random, as per FIA regulations, through the use of bar codes. FIA officials allocate the tyres to the teams, with no involvement from Pirelli in this process. Each tyre has a barcode embedded into its sidewall even before the vulcanization process, which effectively acts as the tyre’s ‘passport’.

The on-track Pirelli team will once more be made up of around 55 people this year, including fitters, logistics personnel, hospitality staff, and engineers. As has always been the case, each team will have its own dedicated Pirelli engineer.

Pirelli