Last year it was a big slide in Turkey, after which the Italians at Pirelli decided to bring a little softer tires to Istanbul this year. However, that seems to have backfired during Friday, because there is suddenly a lot of grip on the Istanbul Park Circuit.
Pirelli had not taken this into account when choosing the tires, simply because the tire supplier was not aware of the treatment the Turkish asphalt layer would receive in the run-up to the Formula 1 weekend. “The soft tire has been a very aggressive choice,” said tire boss Mario Isola in conversation with, among others, RacingNews365.
“When we chose the three compounds for this weekend, we were not aware of the track treatment. Looking at the data from last year, we decided to go a little softer. The soft tire is a very aggressive choice and I believe that some teams have only used these tires on Friday to get rid of them so that the focus is on the medium and hard tire for the race.”
Isola thinks that we will see very little of the red belts on Saturday and Sunday. “I fear that the teams will avoid them. That is of course not the intention of our selection, because we want all three chosen compounds to be suitable for the race weekend. However, it is what it is,” sighs the Italian.
Even during qualifying, many teams will opt for the medium rubber, Isola predicts. Certainly in Q2, because if Q3 would be achieved with those tires, the drivers can start the race on them. “More than just two or three cars will try that, because the delta time (difference in lap time, ed.) between the soft and medium is very small, so it’s not a big risk to try it.”
– .
