Pirelli drops F1 hard compound

Pirelli’s announcement regarding the tyre selections for the Belgium, Italy and Singapore Grands Prix has been followed by the news that the manufacturer’s Motorsport director Paul Hembery doesn’t “think we’ll see the hard compound again”. Speaking with Autosport, Hembery stated that the medium compound P Zero F1 tyre is “proving sufficiently robust for the aggressive circuits”, speculating that a new compound could be inserted “between the current softs and mediums”, making the current medium compound the hardest of the four.

“We want to keep about one second between each [compound],” Hembery told Autosport. “The super soft and soft gap is about right to be honest, because you’ve got a one second speed advantage but you’ve got a clear degradation and limitation on use. If we could replicate that now with a new medium and a new hard then I think we’ll be well placed.”

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