Pirelli refrains from making specific predictions

The end of the Formula 1 season traditionally takes place in the Middle East – prior to the Qatar Grand Prix and then the final race in Abu Dhabi. Last weekend Max Verstappen became world champion for the fourth time, but the battle continues in the constructors’ championship. Three teams still have a mathematical chance of winning: not only McLaren, the leader in this standings, but also Ferrari and Red Bull Racing.

The Lusail International Circuit is hosting a Formula 1 race for the third time and the circuit is characterized by mainly medium-fast and fast corners. Since the parameters are similar to those of Suzuka and Silverstone, Pirelli prepared tires for the Qatar Grand Prix of the three hardest compounds: C1 – Hard, C2 – Medium and C3 – Soft.

Last year, the Qatar Grand Prix was held with three pit stops, mainly due to the instructions of the race management, which ordered all teams to do no more than 18 laps on one set of tires.

This instruction, in turn, was developed based on recommendations from Pirelli engineers, who discovered signs of delamination on the sidewalls of the tires after the first two days of the weekend – it turned out that this was due to peak loads created when attacking of curbs in some corners of the track.

In recent months, Pirelli specialists, together with the FIA ​​​​, have been preparing for the upcoming Qatar Grand Prix, the program of which includes a sprint, to avoid a repeat of last year’s difficulties.

In particular, the configuration of the curbs in seven of the circuit’s 16 corners was changed: as is clear from Pirelli’s press release, “the tops of the pyramid-shaped curbs were rounded.” This was done in Turn 4, Turn 10 and Turns 12 through 14.

Engineers from Pirelli Motorsport’s research department at the company’s Milan base carried out extensive bench tests and also analyzed the condition of the rubber used by some Formula 1 teams during recent private tests in Qatar, using cars from previous production years.

It is clear that this is not the same rubber that Pirelli has prepared for the 2024 race, but tire specialists have been able to obtain useful information.

Last year, serious problems were associated with local climatic conditions, which were characterized not only by high temperatures, but also by very high humidity. Then this led to the fact that some riders simply could not withstand such loads, but now such problems should not exist, since the race takes place more than a month later.

But daytime temperatures in Qatar can still approach 30 degrees, and the track surface will heat up much more, which can cause granulation of the rubber. This phenomenon was also observed in Las Vegas, but for the opposite reason: it was too cold there, so the tires slid on the asphalt, which affected the condition of the rubber surface.

Granulation, as well as thermal degradation of rubber, can be factors that have a serious impact on the choice of tactics, but since Pirelli only had two previous races, one of which took place before the transition from Formula 1 to the new generation of cars, the Italian tire manufacturers gave prefer not to make specific predictions.