New Pirelli tyre to debut in Silverstone

Pirelli will introduce a new specification for their slick tyres at the 2023 British Grand Prix in Silverstone, with Formula 1 teams set to test them at the Spanish Grand Prix, in Barcelona.

The new tyre compound will be made of new material Pirelli was planning to introduce in 2024, but with the 2023 cars having considerably higher levels of downforce compared to 2022, the Italian company has decided to bring them forward as this year’s F1 cars are expected to have more downforce as the teams develop them over the course of the season, meaning the current tyres might not cope with the extra loads.

Pirelli will supply all teams with two extra sets of the new tyres to test over FP1 and FP2 in Barcelona in June, before they are officially introduced over the British Grand Prix weekend in Silverstone later in July.

Performance of F1 cars increased from 2022 to 2023

Justifying the decision of having new tyres; Pirelli’s Motorsport Director Mario Isola said: “We’ve seen how much more performance the 2023 cars have compared to last year throughout the opening races of this season, and that is thanks to the extraordinary pace of development shown by all 10 of the teams.

“In Miami, for example, the pole time was nearly two seconds faster than last year, but the same sort of progress has been seen during races as well,” he pointed out. “Pirelli’s simulation work has always been aimed at not only supplying a product that hits the performance targets specified by stakeholders, but also anticipating any potential problems and reacting to them quickly.

“The new specification contains materials that we have already developed for 2024, which will make the tyres more resistant without affecting any of the other technical parameters or their behaviour on track.

“To allow all the teams to test the new construction on a level playing field, Pirelli will supply two extra tyre sets per car to be used during FP1 and FP2 at the Spanish Grand Prix,” Isola concluded.