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Pirelli comes home to Monza this
weekend; the ‘temple of speed’ that features some of the fastest straights
on the F1 calendar, prompting the cars to run a specific low-drag
aerodynamic set-up. The P Zero White medium and P Zero Yellow soft tyres
have been chosen for the Italian Grand Prix, which are versatile compounds
that are able to balance the unique demands of performance and durability
that Monza always requires. With high-energy loads of up to 4.5g going
through the tyres and some big impacts with the famous kerbs, the tyre
compound and structure is challenged throughout the whole lap.
Paul Hembery, Pirelli motorsport director: “Monza is always one of
the highlights of our season, with an incredible history and atmosphere. We
have the medium and soft compounds, a step softer than our nomination last
year, which should be well suited to Monza and the emphasis on speed that
this circuit always places. We’re expecting a fair degree of wear and
degradation, so as always the work done during free practice will be very
important when it comes to calculating the optimal strategy. With the two
compounds potentially quite closely matched in terms of pace, this opens up
a few options.
The cars run low downforce at Monza and that actually increases the work for
the tyres considerably under acceleration and braking, because with less
force pushing down on top of the car, it’s the tyres that are providing all
the mechanical grip. Allied to the kerbs at Monza, this provides our tyres
with a wide-ranging all-round challenge, requiring consistent durability and
performance.
We have finalised the investigation into Sebastian Vettel's tyre at Spa.
Detailed conclusions from the technical analysis will be presented at
Monza”.
The biggest challenges for the tyres:
A fast circuit like Monza tends to be more demanding on tyres than a slow
circuit, as all the forces at work encourage heat build-up, particularly on
the shoulder of the tyre.
There are significant lateral energy demands at Monza, due to long corners
such as Parabolica, as well as big longitudinal demands, because of all the
traction and braking.
With a low downforce set-up as is used at Monza, the drivers need to take
care of the rear tyres in particular, in order not to provoke wheelspin
under acceleration. However, the other side to this is increased maximum
speed, in the region of 360kph.
Last year’s strategy and how the race was won: Lewis Hamilton used a
one-stop strategy for the 53-lap race, with the hard and medium compounds
nominated last year. The Mercedes driver started on the medium tyre and then
switched to the hard on lap 25.
Expected performance gap between the two compounds: 0.8 - 1.0 seconds per
lap.
The Pirelli team choose their race numbers: #8, Fabrizio Tanfani, chef “It’s
a number that means a lot to me: I was born on 8 July and when I was playing
football as a kid, back home in Piombino, I played with the number 8. There
are 8 years of difference between me and my girlfriend, and 8 is the symbol
of infinity as well.” |
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