Newly-announced Formula One tire supplier Pirelli is heading to England’s Silverstone track this weekend to test an innovative tire design.
The GP3 drivers will be using the new hard-compound P Zero 13-inch tire for the first time. During the opening two rounds of the series a medium-compound tire was used, while a soft-compound made its debut in Valencia.
The British track, which is one of the oldest permanent circuits on the Grand Prix calendar, has just undergone extensive redevelopment with a new section added to the infield that increases the lap length to nearly 3.7 miles.
This means that the tires will have to deal with new asphalt and a configuration that nobody is familiar with, according to Pirelli racing manager Mario Isola, while also performing well at the sustained high speeds that Silverstone is famous for. “The British weather, which is renowned the world over for its unpredictability, is also likely to be an important factor governing the use that the drivers make of their tires,” he points out.
“Working as always in close collaboration with the GP3 series organizers, we identified Silverstone as the right place for our hard-compound GP3 tires to make their debut at the start of the year,” says Isola, “and we are looking forward to seeing them out on the new Silverstone circuit.
He also notes that “the demands placed on the tires are very high there, but we are confident that we have a product that will cope very well with the challenge. Of course we are constantly evolving the tire design, so if we see at the end of the weekend that there is not enough wear, we can certainly adjust the hard compound in the future.”
For more information, visit www.us.pirelli.com.
