A lot of slick engineering goes into making a Formula One car, and tyres are a very crucial part of the car. Pirelli are the official tyre suppliers to Formula 1. They currently provide three dry sets of tyres – soft, medium and hard. Apart from this, for rainy conditions, intermediate and full wet tyres are also supplied by the Italian manufacturers.
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The tyres used by an F1 car are heavily engineered and complex — differing dramatically from those used on passenger cars. How they are used throughout the weekend also requires careful thought and planning. Here’s a bit of what you need to know about the tyres of the F1 cars:
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How are F1 tyres chosen?
For the final race on Sunday, two sets each of the medium and hard tyres are allotted for the final race. For the qualifying sessions, 1 set of soft are allotted to help drivers in setting quick lap times. This is significant as the starting grid of the final race depends on the lap times in qualifying sessions.
For the Free Practice sessions, drivers are allowed to use a maximum of 3 sets of dry tires. The sets in FP1 must be returned to Pirelli before FP2 and FP3 starts.
For drivers who qualify for the race in dry tyres, they must start the race with the tyres used in the second session of qualifying. This applies for the Top 10 drivers from the qualifying sessions. For drivers that qualify outside the Top 10, he can start the race on tyres available to them – soft, medium or hard.
Wet weather rules:
Drivers are required to use 2 different types of dry tyres in the final race. This doesn’t apply, however, if intermediate or full wet tyres are being used by the driver. For the qualifying session, full wet and intermediate tyres can only be used if mandated by the Race Director. Also, if the final race is starting behind the safety car due to rain, then the driver must start with wet tyres. Once rain subsides, the driver and team can decide to switch to a dry tyre in the first pit stop.
Watch Video: F1 Tyres Explained
