Pirelli choice in favor of McLaren, Alfa Romeo and Haas

Pirelli will bring the heaviest compound tires to Silverstone, as only they can handle the very high loads typical of the British circuit with its fast corners.

Experts from Auto Motor und Sport believe that hard tires are well suited to teams such as McLaren, Alfa Romeo and Haas F1 and will allow them to fully exploit the speed potential of their cars.

It is clear that Red Bull Racing and Ferrari will battle for the lead, as usual it does not depend on the characteristics of the track or the choice of rubber. The F1-75 has high downforce and plenty of power, but the RB18 chassis is generally more efficient.

Mercedes is considered the third force, as George Russell and Lewis Hamilton are regularly ahead of all the other teams’ riders, although they have not yet been able to fight for victories.

But for fourth place in the team hierarchy, several candidates compete at once, sometimes Alpine F1 looks better in the middle of the pack, sometimes Alfa Romeo, sometimes McLaren. But in some races AlphaTauri, Aston Martin and Haas looked good. In addition, the balance of power in this group is influenced not only by the characteristics of the circuits and cars, but also by the choice of tires that take Pirelli to one or another phase of the season.

The main features of the new 18-inch tires that the teams have been dealing with since this year are that they are less elastic, deform differently under load, and riders often get the feeling that the rear tires work more efficiently than the front tires. That’s why cars tend to understeer.

The experts of the German publication in its most general form traced a number of characteristic features visible during the early part of the season: Alpine and Aston Martin are more suited to high-speed tracks where relatively little downforce is required, while AlphaTauri and Haas have the least difficulty on slow tracks.

Mercedes drivers are more comfortable to fly where the proportion of straights is not too great, and Alfa Romeo cars, for example, perform well on all tracks, with the exception of tracks dominated by slow corners. But these are only general trends and in some individual cases they are not confirmed.

But for example, according to the results of the qualifications, Alpine cars were most often in the top ten on those tracks where the teams used the softest C5 rubber compound – in Melbourne, Monaco and Baku. Although it was there that Alfa Romeo had problems.

At the same time, it seems that the speed of AlphaTauri cars is not influenced by the choice of rubber, but by the characteristics of the track. It only makes sense to talk about Aston Martin in terms of the last four stages, when the team introduced a seriously upgraded car, but it can already be noted that the softest tires of the C5 compound work quite effectively on their AMR22 . Incidentally, tire wear on green cars is relatively moderate over the course of the race.

As usual Pirelli prepared the tires of the three most difficult compositions for the British round of the championship, given the load on this track. With C1, C2 and C3 the teams worked in Barcelona and the conclusions drawn after that race and during the first nine stages suggest that the Alfa Romeo, McLaren and Haas teams will be in a better position at Silverstone.

Of course Alpine, Aston Martin and AlphaTauri are not going to take this and hope that the technical innovations they have prepared for the British Grand Prix will work effectively.