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What's the story?
Formula One official tire suppliers Pirelli have announced the tire compounds on offer for the first three races of the 2018 season in Melbourne, Sakhir, and Shanghai.
The Background
Same as in 2017 season, the Milan based company will offer three compounds for each Grand Prix weekend. Teams must choose at least one set each of three available choices. A driver is free to choose the remaining 10 sets, thus making it a total of 13 tire sets per driver per race weekend.
From 2016 season, each driver must save a set of the softest compound available on a particular racing weekend for the final Q3 session of qualifying. The drivers who participated in Q3 will have it returned. Drivers outside the Top 10 can use the particular set in the race.
The heart of the matter
Formula One official tire supplier Pirelli has to nominate the three tire compounds a driver can use at a particular racing weekend. Pirelli has to announce about the three tire compounds well in advance. Intermediate and wet tire compounds are available on a racing weekend where rain interruption is possible.
The season opener in Melbourne, Australia will have the purple - colored ultra soft, the red-colored super soft and the yellow - colored soft tire compounds on the F1 cars.
For the second race in Bahrain, Pirelli has played a little safe considering the conditions both on and off the desert track. The choices are the white-colored medium, the soft and the super soft.
For the third race in China, the official tire suppliers of Formula 1 will offer the medium, soft and ultra soft tire choices to the teams. Italy based company has skipped the super-soft compound as the fastest compound on offer.
What's next
The tires manufacturer, Pirelli announced the pink-colored hypersoft and orange-colored superhard as the latest additions to its range for the next year (2018). Hypersoft tires will give the most grip on offer by a tire set in Formula 1 but will wear out most rapidly. Superhard compounds will offer the least grip but will last the longest of all the available choices.
Author's take
Pundits and fans alike were looking forward to seeing the impact the new compounds will have on Formula One but Pirelli have decided against offering them in the first three races of the next season. Pirelli are perhaps waiting for more data on the new compounds before introducing them in the sport.
