Pirelli and the Silverstone Challenge
The cautious Italian manufacturer takes a new step into the unknown.
High-speed circuit, with the 3rd highest average in qualifying in 2010, behind Monza and Spa-Francorchamps, Silverstone is expected to be among the most demanding circuits for Pirelli tires. The Italian manufacturer has once again decided to play it safe on a circuit it does not know by bringing soft tires with yellow sidewalls and hard tires with silver sidewalls.
As is customary since the start of the season, Pirelli will also provide the teams with two sets of development tires during Friday’s practice sessions.
Paul Hembery – Pirelli Motorsport Director
«Silverstone always produces exciting races and has a fantastic atmosphere. Our choice of tires for this race will provide the teams with the durability they need to meet the demands of the circuit, thanks to the hard tires, as well as the speed with which they can demonstrate their performance, with the soft tires.»
The way they will use these tires will of course be the basis of the strategy: teams that think they have a performance advantage might choose to do stints on yellow sidewall soft tires, while others might conclude that they would do better to stay longer on silver sidewall hard tires.
The choice of strategy will naturally have an effect on the qualifications as well as the race, so we will have a fairly clear idea by Saturday of what the teams will do.
«However, no matter the choice of teams, they should finish quite close at the end of the race, but, of course, it is very difficult to make reliable predictions, especially since Silverstone is one of the many circuits where we have not done any testing. In Great Britain, it can rain at any moment, which would obviously render any strategic forecast useless. »
Paul di Resta – Force India Driver
« It’s a place where you can really feel how a Formula One excels in the big fast corners like Copse, Maggots, and Becketts. This year, with the new configuration, the end of the lap is very fast, so it will be interesting to see how the tires hold up in qualifying. Any high-speed track is always demanding on the tires because of the significant lateral loads in corners, so taking care of the tires will surely be an important factor this weekend and strategy will be critical. Having a good understanding of the tires over long stints will be a priority during free practice. »
