Pirelli were there when it all began back in 1950 as one of three tyre suppliers to Formula One. Firestone, Dunlop and Englebert also supplied a number of the teams, but in their five year stint in the sport, Pirelli claimed 32 Grand Prix victories whilst the rest combined achieved just nine in the same period.
With no explanation, Pirelli then pulled its support for F1 only to return in 2011 when Bridgestone walked away after refusing to comply with the new FIA requirements. Having suffered years of processional racing in the naughties, F1’s governing body decided they wished their tyre supplier to produce a product which deliberately degraded, forcing the teams to make multiple pit stops for fresh rubber which would add to the strategic entertainment.
Bridgestone argued that creating a tyre not to last would damage their brand and so refused the FIA’s request to change their specifications which opened the door to Pirelli, who have supplied the F1 teams ever since.
Pirelli: New F1 dawn
The Italian manufacturer arguably created history, by building tyres for racing which were not designed to last, but following some teething problems and exploding tyre headlines, the Pirelli rubber has come to be an important part of the modern day F1 show.
Whilst the tyre compounds have been modified and their construction changed over the fifteen years since Pirelli replaced Bridgestone, the principal remains that its the job of the tyre manufacturer to attempt to deliver rubber which will force two pit stops per car per Grand Prix.
At a significant number of the current F1 circuits on the schedule, the pit lane is long and a stop is punitive when considering the total race time. So teams and drivers have forever tried to beat the system, making the tyres last and stopping just once in a Grand Prix. In fact this was Sauber’s strategy last time out in Silverstone, where Nico Hulkenberg finally claimed the first podium of his career after 239 race starts.
Designing a range of tyres which can cope with extreme weather changes, a high variety of circuit designs and asphalt conditions is no simple task and on the whole the Pirelli era has improved Grand Prix racing for the better. Yet the Italian rubber manufacturer is always trying to improve their product and this year is experimenting with the selection of dry weather tyres in its range of six.
Belgium GP tyre experiment
For the first time at the 2025 F1 Belgium Grand Prix, Pirelli have selected a range of three compounds from the C1 to C6 range which are not consecutive. The teams can choose this weekend from the C1 (hard), C3 (medium) and C4 (soft) at the Sprint race weekend in Spa Francorchamps.
The aim of this approach from Pirelli is to promote a two pit stop Grand Prix, with skipping a compound designed to make the hard tyre less competitive relative to the C3 and C4. However, the situation has become complicated given Pirelli have responded this year to complaints over the graining of the 2024 tyres.
Their revised construction methodology has reduced this aspect of tyre degradation and so the drivers are more capable of stretching the stint length of this season’s softer compounds. In fact the 2024 Belgian Grand Prix was dominated by tyre graining, but this year in the practice session and the Sprint qualifying yesterday, this appears to have almost completely gone.
“This was an improvement, let’s say, in tyre appearance,” said Pirelli chief engineer Simone Berra after the Friday sessions in Spa. “So this year the graining is no more a limitation. It was a concern last year for the strategies and that’s why almost all the teams opted for a two-stop race last year. And so this year, without the graining, if you have a proper level of management of the rear axle thermal decay, probably you can extend the stint lengths on both soft and medium.”
Tyres better than expected in Spa
The plan was to deter the teams from using the two steps removed harder compound due to its relative lack of pace. And had the tyres degraded in similar fashion to 2024, they would have been forced into a two stop strategy using the C3 and C4 tyres.
But the tyres have performed much better than expected, meaning a soft-medium one stop strategy looks probable come the race on Sunday. Other than the new Pirelli instruction for 2025, Berra believes there are reasons for the complete lack of graining in Spa this season.
“I think it’s two effects: obviously the ageing of the tarmac, of the new patches, that obviously after one year they had increased both the macro- and the microroughness; and also the improvement in mechanical properties of the compounds. So both the effects,” Berra explained.
“Also the teams that know our product better compared to previous years. Basically, the product is different and the compounds are different, but after 13 races they now have a lot of experience and based on the experience of the last year with the new surface, probably they found a good set-up not to generate graining. That’s it,” he concluded.
Red Bull reveal their hand
Whilst the plan for Sunday from Pirelli may already be out the window, but the choices the teams and drivers make for the Sprint will define the rest of the weekend. The front runners may well select C3 medium tyre for the Saturday morning race, although drivers out of position like Lewis Hamilton and George Russell may well opt for the more racy C4 soft compound.
There is even the possibility that those with no chance of making the points in the Sprint, will burn a set of C1 hard tyres to save the others for the Grand Prix. Red Bull appear to have shown their hand in that Max Verstappen has just one set of new medium tyres and two sets of new hards for the rest of there weekend.
Its almost certain Verstappen will now attempt a one stop strategy on Sunday, using the hard tyre for his second stint which will hold up better with the low downforce package the team have chosen for the weekend.
Of course the chance of rain in Belgium is always high and Sunday’s forecast is mixed. A downpour in the Ardenne forrest will throw Pirelli’s tyre experiment out of the window and maybe it would have been better attempted where inclement conditions are not the norm.
Wolff blames Russell for triggering “a media avalanche
For the first time in over twenty years, Christian Horner is not in the paddock for a Formula One race weekend and his arch rival Toto Wolff was asked how he felt no that his long term nemesis was now gone from the sport.
As expected, the Mercedes team boss was neither warm nor effusive in giving his thoughts and refuted the accusation that it was his relentless pursuit of Horner’s star driver which led to the Austrian overlords to release the third longest ever serving F1 team principal.
Toto Wolff appeared confused over the performance of his drivers in free practice, given the cooler temperatures he expected better than P4 for Russell and P6 for Antonelli who was almost a second off the fastest time set by Oscar Piastri…. READ MORE
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