2011-11-24

Brazilian GP Prewiew: Pirelli rounds off a remarkable debut season with two new tyres

After 18 races and 5488 kilometres so far, Pirelli will round off a remarkable season – characterised by the most overtaking in the 61-year history of the Formula One World Championship – at the iconic Interlagos circuit in Sao Paulo. It’s a venue that has produced plenty of dramatic races in the past, but now Pirelli is concentrating more on the future, with two new tyre compounds making their debut at the race. During Friday’s two free practice sessions, drivers will have two extra sets of an experimental hard tyre, which has already been tested by Lucas di Grassi and Pirelli’s Toyota TF109 car in private tests at Jerez and Barcelona this year. This tyre is considerably softer than the current hard.

The results will be fed back to Pirelli’s engineers as they prepare for the 2012 season, just as was the case during the free practice sessions in Abu Dhabi, where an experimental soft tyre was tried out. For the race itself the P Zero Yellow soft and P Zero White medium tyres have been nominated. However, the soft tyre that has been nominated is another new compound, which was tested by the teams during the young driver test at Abu Dhabi last week and during Friday free practice at the Nurburgring.

Interlagos is well known for its passionate fans, sweeping elevation changes and anti-clockwise layout. One of the key points of the circuit for both the drivers and the tyres is the final sequence of corners from turn 10 onwards, which effectively amounts to one very long left-hand bend – putting plenty of energy through the tyres and also the drivers’ necks. At this time of the year in Brazil, rain showers are a frequent occurrence, which are capable of turning the race on its head. As usual Pirelli will bring the P Zero Orange rain tyre and P Zero blue intermediate. Drivers are allowed a total of five sets of intermediates (if it rains on Friday, otherwise four sets) and three sets of rain tyres over the weekend under the current regulations.

Pirelli’s motorsport director says: Paul Hembery: “Preparations for the 2012 season are well underway, so it will be really interesting to hear the thoughts of the drivers about the new hard and soft tyres that we will be trying out in Brazil. We’ve already collected plenty of information on the new soft tyre from the young driver test, so it will be useful to compare that to real race data. It’s important not to get too distracted by the names of the tyres though: what we’re calling a ‘soft’ for now could end up as a medium for next year, as that’s what the testing process is all about. In general, the tyres are going to be less conservative next year as the second half of this season has shown how well the teams have understood our product, allowing us to make some reasonably aggressive choices such as supersoft and soft for Korea. We’re delighted to be ending the season in Brazil: not only is it a legendary circuit with an amazing atmosphere but it is also a key market for Pirelli.”

More info in the attached PDF file.

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Information about the company: Pirelli Tyre Nordic AB

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