F1 News: Pirelli Focused on New Tire Just for Street Circuits in 2025

Pirelli, the sole tire supplier for Formula 1, has announced that by 2025, it will launch a new tire specifically engineered for the growing number of street circuits on the F1 calendar. This new development, known as the "C6 compound," is intended to offer a softer tire option that adapts to the unique conditions of urban race tracks, enhancing performance, strategy, and excitement for the viewer.

The introduction of the C6 compound is a critical response to the shifting dynamics of the Formula 1 race schedule, which now includes more street races, like the addition of Las Vegas. These urban settings pose distinct challenges compared to traditional race tracks, including tighter turns and variable road surfaces, which can lead to quicker overheating of tires. In a conversation with RACER, Mario Isola, Pirelli's Motorsport Director, highlighted that the C6 compound aims to manage tire overheating while maintaining necessary degradation for strategic variability in races. This balance is crucial for allowing teams to execute diverse racing strategies, possibly affecting decisions on one-stop versus two-stop strategies during races.

Pirelli initiated the development of the C6 compound with extensive testing at the Paul Ricard circuit, aiming to finalize its construction for the 2025 season. This decision wasn't directly requested by F1 teams but was instead a strategic move by Pirelli based on anticipated needs due to changes in the racing calendar. The softer C6 compound is designed to reduce the common issue of overheating seen in softer tires while ensuring degradation remains controlled to permit various strategic choices during races.

Mario Isola said the following: “We collected quite a lot of good information—we finalized more or less the construction of the 2025 slick tires. We have very promising compounds to reduce overheating for 2025. The idea is to also introduce a new C6 compound, a softer one, because in the calendar we have more and more street circuits and we need softer compounds."

The innovative C6 compound also faced evaluations concerning its structural integrity and performance consistency under simulated street racing conditions at Paul Ricard. Isola elaborated,

“So we are going to move the range a little bit on the soft side, always trying to reduce the overheating. The real problem is to find the right trade-off between overheating and degradation, because we need to keep degradation but reduce overheating. And that’s not always easy because the two elements are connected.”

As the development continues, Pirelli plans to possibly homologate up to six different compounds for the coming season. Initial races next season should provide essential feedback, helping to refine the compounds further based on real race data.