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TYRES ON THE
TRACK
* Pirelli brings the hardest tyres in the 2022 range to the race where it is
title sponsor in Spain, with the C1 as the P Zero White hard, C2 as the P
Zero Yellow medium, and C3 as the P Zero Red soft. It’s a pretty
straightforward choice – which is the same as last year, albeit using a
brand-new family of tyres – with the demands of the Barcelona circuit being
extremely well-known from testing and previous races. These famously include
the long Turn 3 as well as Turn 9: all corners that put a lot of energy
through the tyres.
* The teams were at Barcelona as recently as February, three months ago, for
pre-season testing. However, there are three big differences to consider:
firstly, the teams concentrated on testing compounds in the middle of the
range back then rather than the hard; secondly, weather conditions were much
cooler; and thirdly, the new cars were in their most basic launch
specification. The cars have moved on considerably since then, and it’s
going to be interesting to see how much that improvement actually is with
the latest upgrades.
* With Barcelona being a very well-used circuit, there’s not going to be a
huge amount of track evolution expected over the course of the weekend,
thanks to a busy schedule of support races too. Temperatures should be dry
and warm, adding to the heavy demands placed on the tyres. The track itself
is unchanged compared to last year, when Turn 10 was modified, slightly
increasing the overall length of the circuit.
* Last year’s winning strategy was a two-stopper, the traditional approach
to Barcelona, with Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton triumphing from pole using
a soft-medium-medium strategy. Soft-medium-soft was used by all the
finishers from P2 to P8. |
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MARIO ISOLA - HEAD OF CAR
RACING
“It’s hard to say much about Barcelona that hasn’t been said already, as
it’s possibly the best-known circuit on the calendar for the drivers, with
its wide-ranging layout making it a perfect testing venue. It has a bit of
everything, with the very technical final sector being particularly
important when it comes to looking after the tyres. As a result, the teams
will have a good opportunity to assess the progress they have made with
their cars since the start of the season, although the weather conditions
will be much warmer and there will probably be a lot more running on the
hard tyre than there was in testing, which will perhaps be the key to the
race. In the past, Barcelona has traditionally been a two-stopper, so it
will be interesting to see if the new generation of tyres this year leads
anyone to target a one-stopper.”
OTHER PIRELLI NEWS
The opening round of the 2022 Intercontinental GT Challenge got underway at
the iconic Bathurst circuit in Australia last weekend running exclusively on
Pirelli tyres. Jules Gounon, Luca Stolz, Kenny Habul and Martin Konrad
headed a Mercedes one-two-three from a 20-car GT3 field after 12 hours of
racing from dawn until dusk.
WRC
Rally Portugal, round four of the World Rally Championship, takes place in
Porto during the same weekend as the Spanish Grand Prix, around 1150
kilometres away. This is the first gravel round of the championship, with
Pirelli bringing the latest evolutions of its Scorpion gravel tyres.
ERC
The European Rally Championship resumed in the Canary Islands for round
three of the championship last weekend, with Pirelli bringing its new P Zero
RA5A asphalt tyre for the first time, featuring a new construction that
improves performance and reliability. Nils Solans gave the new tyre a
winning debut in his Volkswagen Polo.
FROM RACE TO ROAD
Pirelli’s Flurheden winter test track in Sweden is now opening a summer
facility as well, ensuring all-year round tyre testing in Sweden for the
first time. The advanced facility – located less than 300 kilometres from
Rally Sweden’s base in Umea – is used to develop Pirelli’s latest road car
products based on the lessons learned from motorsport. |
