The street circuits have enjoyed a real boom in Formula 1 in recent years. They are often a thorn in the side of the fans, but since races in cities with millions of inhabitants are financially worthwhile, the number is likely to increase rather than decrease in the coming seasons. The most recent example is the Madrid Grand Prix, which will join the racing calendar in 2026. A third of the races currently consist of road courses.
Their inflationary development is also increasingly causing problems for tire supplier Pirelli, which will supply Formula 1 tires until at least 2027. “We have more and more street circuits in the racing calendar. And these generally require the soft tires,” explained Pirelli Motorsport Director Mario Isola.
Isola confirms: New soft tire could come in 2025
The Italian introduced another soft tire compound in the run-up to the Chinese GP. We either need one more soft tire, or we have to shift the range to the soft side in the future,” explained Isola. Until the current season, there were already six compounds, but at the hard end of the tire scale. The C0 tire , which was the hardest mixture available last season, was never used.
The changes could probably become an issue in the coming season. “We’re considering that for 2025. We’re looking at adding more mechanical resistance to the compounds to push the range on the soft side,” explained Isola, adding: “But ideally we’ll probably do six [Reifenmischungen; d. Red.] need.”
The Italian hopes that the changes to the tires will provide a wider range of strategies for the race. These days, especially on road courses, these increasingly consist of one-stop races, as overtaking opportunities are often few and far between and the asphalt is much easier on tires. “Not all races have to be two-stop races, but most do.”
Pirelli lacks the testing options: cannot shut down the whole of Singapore
However, Pirelli faces a difficult task in the further development of soft tires, especially for road courses. “We have difficulty finding places where we can simulate street courses,” admitted Isola.
When testing tires, Pirelli usually uses well-tried and, above all, representative routes such as Barcelona or Silverstone, which sometimes exert high forces on the tires. The data that the tire manufacturer collects is meaningful for routes with similar characteristics, but the lessons can only be applied to a limited extent on road courses.
Testing new tire compounds on road courses, which are often only prepared a week before the start of the race and otherwise serve as normal roads for everyday traffic, is a much more difficult undertaking. “We cannot ask Singapore to cordon off the city for a Pirelli test,” says Isola.
According to Isola, a tire test immediately after a race on a road course would also be difficult. “You also have to look at the calendar. We have a lot of back-to-backs and triple headers, so we can’t ask the teams to stay longer and test our tires. They are exhausted,” explained Isola.