Formula One restarts from Barcelona. Sixth round of the world championship, with the teams who will try on the Montmelò track to figure out which ones will be theirs goals within this season.
Pirelli's choices
It will be a test also for Pirelli. L'Italian company from the long P for Barcelona in fact, compared to Miami, select the hardest compounds in the 2022 range: the C1(Hard), C2(Medium) e C3(soft). Let's find out everything in detail.
THE TIRES ON THE TRACK
- At the Spanish Grand Prix, of which it is the title sponsor, Pirelli brings the hardest compounds of the 2022 range: the C1 as P Zero White hard, the C2 as P Zero Yellow medium and the C3 as P Zero Red soft. It was a pretty simple choice. It is the same as last year even if a brand new family of tires are used, as the challenges of the Barcelona circuit are well understood from previous tests and races. These include the long Turn 3 and Turn 9: both put a lot of energy on the tyres.
- The teams were in Barcelona in February, three months ago, for pre-season testing. However, there are three major differences to consider from back then. Firstly, in testing the teams focused on the central compounds of the range rather than the hard ones; secondly, the weather conditions were much cooler; finally, the new cars were not yet in the final version. Since then the cars have improved considerably and it will be interesting to see just how significant the step forward achieved with the latest updates actually is.
- With Barcelona being a heavily used circuit, there won't be a huge track evolution over the course of the weekend, thanks in part to a busy schedule of support races. The temperatures are expected to be dry and warm, which adds yet another challenge to those already foreseen for the tyres. The track is unchanged from last year, when turn 10 was modified, slightly increasing the overall length of the circuit.
- The winning strategy last year was two stops. The traditional approach in Barcelona, with Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton triumphing after sprinting from pole using medium and soft. The soft-medium-soft strategy was also used by all the riders who reached the finish line between second and eighth place.
Isola: "It will be a good challenge"
Of course, the words of Mario Isola, head of Pirelli's Motorsport area, are inevitable:
“It's difficult to say much more about Barcelona than has already been said, considering that it is probably the circuit on the calendar that is best known by the drivers, with its layout making it a perfect proving ground. It has a bit of everything, with the very technical final sector becoming particularly important when it comes to tire management. Therefore, the teams will have a good opportunity to gauge the progress their cars have made since the start of the season, although the weather conditions will be much warmer and there will probably be much more use of the hard compound than seen in testing. , which could be the key option for the race. In the past, Barcelona has traditionally been a two-stop race, so it will be interesting to see if the new generation of tires this year will inspire anyone to aim for the one stop."
SOURCE: Pirelli F1 Media
