Berra: Soft tires suitable for racing

This year, for the first time in history, the Japanese Grand Prix will not take place in the fall, but on the first weekend of April, and it was known in advance that this would not happen without the vagaries of spring weather. It is cool in Suzuka, it is drizzling and such conditions were not conducive to fruitful work on the track.

Pirelli’s tire manufacturers prepared the hardest tire compounds for the Japanese stage, and during the first practice session riders from different teams tried all three. The Italian company, analyzing Friday’s results, recalled that the sports rules for 2024 have been adjusted regarding the use of rain tires.

Each driver will be allocated five sets of intermediate tires and two sets of heavy rain tires for the weekend, and with the likelihood of rain continuing on Saturday and Sunday, the teams have opted to reduce track work during on-track practice. to be kept to a minimum. to save this band for the main weekend events.

Simone Berrachief engineer of Pirelli Motorsport: “The events developed in such a way that only the first hour of practice allowed us to collect useful information about the behavior of the tires on such a difficult track as Suzuka.

The second session was characterized by intermittent rain, meaning the asphalt was never dry enough for the riders to attack on slicks. At the same time, it was not wet enough to fully assess the behavior of the intermediate tires, and it was certainly impossible to understand at what point it was necessary to switch back to slicks.

The most interesting information was how much the lap times had improved compared to last year’s Japanese Grand Prix. On tires with the same composition, Max Verstappen completed a lap in 1 minute. 30.056 seconds, i.e. 1.6 seconds faster than last September.

It is clear that lower temperatures contributed to this, and this had a particularly noticeable effect on increasing the efficiency of C3 rubber. Another factor was the overall improvement in vehicle performance compared to last year.

Therefore, we can assume that soft tires are suitable for use in the race, given the advantage they can provide at the start and in the first laps of the race. Therefore, they can be a particularly attractive choice on a circuit where overtaking is very difficult.

However, another training is scheduled for tomorrow, during which we will continue to gather the information necessary to decide on the choice of possible tactics.”