(Pirelli Motorsport Media)
The European leg of the Formula One season gets underway at
the Barcelona Circuit De Catalunya this weekend with Pirelli set to bring the
P-Zero Orange Hard compound and the P-Zero White Medium compound tyre.
The Pirelli Spanish Grand Prix is one of the toughest of the
season in terms of tyre wear and this is particularly true with the front left
tyre which is worked the hardest.
This weekend will see the main show, Formula One, along with
the GP2 and GP3 for the first time this season following the first four
fly-away Grand Prix of the year. There will also be a two day in season Formula
One test following Sunday’s race.
Two of the winter tests took place at the Barcelona Circuit
De Catalunya in February however this weekend the weather will be much hotter
with the air temperature set to reach a staggering 25 degrees. This weekend,
Formula One cars will use a high downforce set up which allows the cars to stay
planted to the circuit.
Tyre degradation is extremely high at the Montmelo circuit
due to the long straights couple with both high and low speed corners. The
asphalt is one of the roughest of year which is why the Medium and Hard
compound tyre range have been chosen.
It is only the second race weekend this season that Pirelli
will have brought the Medium and Hard compound tyre, the last time they were
used were at the Malaysian Grand Prix, a race which was won by Scuderia Ferrari’s
Sebastian Vettel. Speaking ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix, Pirelli Director of
Motorsport, Paul Hembery stated:
‘Spain is
obviously one of the more familiar venues that we go to, as there has already
been plenty of data gathered during testing. One of the things we have noticed
so far is that this year Barcelona will once again be a front-limited circuit,
from a tyre perspective. Last year, the increase in traction and torque from
the cars meant that for the first time the race became a rear-limited event,
with the useful life of the rear tyres dictating the pit stop strategy. Thanks
to the improvements we made to the rear tyre construction for this year, we’re
back to Barcelona being a front-limited circuit again. However, we do not
expect this to mean that there will necessarily be more pit stops this year:
last year the majority of competitors used a two-stop strategy and that will
probably be the case again. The biggest unknown factor will be the weather: in
the past we have seen some very hot weather in Barcelona, but it isn’t always
guaranteed. The start of the European season traditionally means that many
teams bring important upgrades, and it will be very interesting to see how
these interact with our 2015 tyres.’
© Ben Johnston 2015
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