That might sound relatively straightforward, but Pirelli makes six different tire compounds, with the option to choose three of them for any given F1 weekend. This means that the three available compounds you see on television (soft, medium, and hard) can vary from weekend to weekend.<\/p>\n
PopMech sat down for an interview with Pirelli\u2019s Head of Motorsport operations, Mario Isola. He\u2019s a bit of a legend in the paddock, and a genuinely kind human being to boot; when he\u2019s not fulfilling his duties with Pirelli, he works as a volunteer ambulance driver and first responder<\/a> in Milan, Italy.<\/p>\n Why Just One Supplier?<\/p>\n Pirelli is currently the only F1 tire supplier, and will continue to fulfill that role until at least 2028. However, things used to be different\u2014multiple tire manufacturers were involved in the sport as recently as 2006, with Michelin<\/a> and Bridgestone<\/a>. And that raises one question: Why are there no aspirations to have multiple manufacturers duke it out in Formula 1? <\/p>\n Related Story<\/p>\n Plain and simple, Isola said that it would be prohibitively expensive<\/a>. \u201cWhen you have a tire competition, there is a lot of cost associated with development, and now it\u2019s almost impossible to think of a situation like that,\u201d Isola explained. \u201cWe also don’t want a championship that is dominated by tires […] we want the hero of the show to be the driver, the team, and the car, not the tire supplier.\u201d<\/p>\n Compounds For The Year? Matt Crisara<\/p>\n Another big question was how Pirelli decides which compounds to bring where\u2014with 24 race weekends throughout the year, it\u2019s certainly not a small job. In years past, Pirelli has had years of data from teams to go through, making its decision considerably easier. 2026 is a very different story, as the cars (and tires<\/a>) will be completely different.<\/p>\n \u201cNext year is very special, because clearly, we have a completely new car, new tires, and there is still a certain level of uncertainty on the expected performance of the cars<\/a>,\u201d Isola said. \u201cWe receive simulations from the teams with their best estimation on the performance of the cars, but still, we see differences across the teams.\u201d Pirelli\u2019s response was to design a wide range of compounds with a significant difference in the laptimes they\u2019re able to offer. This gives them some breathing room to supply teams with tire compounds that can properly cope with the performance of the car, which remains largely unknown.<\/p>\n The Pinnacle of Motorsport<\/p>\n That said, Pirelli\u2019s engineering decisions for next year aren\u2019t as much of a shot in the dark as they may sound. Like many aspects of Formula 1, they\u2019re able to run simulations<\/a> to get some idea of how the tires are going to behave. \u201cWe choose six different circuits with different characteristics […] and teams upload their set of data for those circuits with the estimation of the performance at the end of the season,\u201d Isola said. This \u201ctesting\u201d process happens between June 30th and early December.<\/p>\n Isola mentioned that the selections for next year\u2014especially early in the season\u2014will most likely look very similar to what we saw in 2025. However, there\u2019s wiggle room to adjust the compound selections during the season, as Pirelli can change its compound selections up to a month before any given race.<\/p>\n Data Acquisition From Track to Track<\/p>\n It\u2019s no surprise that Pirelli would have mountains of data to support its decisions to bring different compounds to different race tracks. Not only are the teams supplying Pirelli with data, the tire giant also gathers its own data. For instance, to the casual observer, most pavement is practically identical. But not for Pirelli. They use specialist equipment to measure the abrasiveness and grip of every race track<\/a> that Formula 1 visits in the calendar year.<\/p>\n![\"aston](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/img-0695-69418e55a59ae.jpg\" "\\"aston")
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