Al Hungarian Grand Prix, the teams will have softer compounds available compared to last year. Pirelli will in fact bring the C3 as P Zero White hard, the C4 as P Zero Yellow medium and the C5 as P Zero Red soft.
Pirelli, the ATA debuts in Hungary
It will debut in Budapest l'Alternative Tire Allocation (ATA) which involves the use of a mandatory slick compound for each qualifying session. In In Q1 the teams will have to use the Hard, in Q2 the Medium and in Q3 the Soft. If the session is declared wet, the obligation ceases and the teams can use the compound they prefer. With the ATA the number of sets available for each car is reduced to 11, instead of the 13 of a classic race weekend. In fact, each pilot will be able to count on three sets of Hard, four sets of Medium and the same number of Soft. However, the number of wet tires remains unchanged: three sets of Full Wet and four of Intermediate, net of the use of an additional set of Intermediates in case of rain on Friday or adverse weather forecasts for Saturday.
On Friday it will be necessary to return a set of tires at the end of each free practice session. Another two will have to be returned on Saturday, after FP3. This will leave seven sets of tires for qualifying and the race, of which at least one set of Hard and one set of Medium must be kept for the Grand Prix. The ATA should have been tested for the first time during the Made in Italy and Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix. A second test, after the Hungaroring, will be carried out at the Italian Grand Prix in Monza on the first weekend of September.
The conditions of the track
In Hungary they could be registered high ambient and asphalt temperatures. The race at the end of July and the location of the circuit, in a natural amphitheater that does not favor air circulation, make the Budapest stage challenging for the thermal management of the tires and for the fatigue of the drivers themselves.
Remembering last year
Usually, the most frequent strategy at the Hungaroring is the one based on two stops, while the one planned on a single tire change is rarer. The choices made in 2022 were heavily influenced by a VSC and a safety car. Almost all the drivers made three stops using all the available compounds. At the start, half the grid started the race on Soft and the other half on Medium, then changing to Hard in the second or third stint.
Pirelli, Isola: “Track that puts everyone to the test”
To present the Hungarian GP, there was no shortage of words from the head of Pirelli's motorsport technical area, Mario Isola: “The Hungarian Grand Prix has become a classic event of the Formula 1 summer season and, as such, features the air and asphalt temperatures, which are usually very high, as major protagonists. This puts a strain on drivers, cars and tyres, also because the tortuous nature of the track does not allow anything or anyone to take a breather: there is only one fairly long straight - the pit straight - which also constitutes, in braking of the first right bend, the only concrete possibility of overtaking. Then there are a succession of thirteen other corners, seven on the right and six on the left for a circuit that is second only to that of Monte-Carlo in terms of the lowest average speed, so much so that the single-seaters are usually equipped with a level of aerodynamic load similar to that of the race in the Principality".
“It will be a race that will be played on degradation”
“Usually, this race depends a lot on strategies and tire degradation. This year we have chosen to bring a softer trio of compounds (C3, C4 and C5) compared to 2022 and a new tire allocation format for qualifying (ATA, Alternative Tire Allocation) will be tested for the first time, which involves the obligation in the case of a dry track to use the Hard in Q1, the Medium in Q2 and the Soft in Q3. Both of these innovations can, at least on paper, offer a wider range of options in terms of strategy. The ATA also allows us to save two sets of dry tires compared to the traditional format (eleven instead of thirteen) and will be tested again on the occasion of the Italian Grand Prix in Monza: then the FIA, F1 and the teams will decide whether, eventually, adopt it for the next season".
SOURCE: Pirelli F1 Media
