Pirelli’s Formula 1 tyres will have simply 3 completely different sidewall colors next year – white, yellow and red to identify hard, medium and soft choices. This season has seen seven colors used in a ‘rainbow’ vary of tyres stretching from super-hard through hard, medium, soft, super-soft, ultra-soft and hyper-soft. Compounds will still vary in 2019 to suit individual track characteristics, with the soft used at twisting monaco very totally different from identical color code at high-speed Silverstone or Suzuka.
Pirelli told reporters at the U.S. grand prix that the amount of compounds obtainable to teams would become well-known in December when the governing FIA had given formal approval. The sport’s sole tyre creater said the new system would make it easier for the casual fan to understand what was getting used whereas a lot of detail would still be obtainable to people who needed it.
“We’ve been talking regarding this with the teams, FIA and Formula One for a moment,” said Pirelli’s racing head Mario Isola. “The plan behind the modification is to create all the tyres additional simply recognizable and explicable – specially for TV – whereas still clearly denoting that specific compounds are getting used at every race.”
Isola had said in January, within the face of concern that the rash of names and colors would be confusing for fans, that Pirelli felt using simply 3 tyre designations would be ‘dumbing down’ the sport. Harder tyres are slower over a lap however longer lasting whereas softer ones are faster but lose performance sooner. 3 tyre varieties from within the vary are presently chosen for every race.