F1 Explains: Tyres - what's new for 2026 and how Pirelli get drivers on track

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0:58like NVIDIA, Microsoft, Amazon, and plenty more. So if you want to be smart with your wallet, your career choices, in meetings with your colleagues, and at dinner parties, listen to Big Technology Podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Whenever we talk about tires on F1 Explains, I remember the poem Jolien Palmer came up with on a previous episode. They're round, they're black, they keep you on the track. Not just a good driver and commentator, young Jolien Palmer, is he? tyres are so important in F1 the temperature and condition of a driver's tyre have a huge influence on how they drive teams take so much care of them wrapping them in blankets to keep them warm scrubbing and washing them to keep them clean as if they were round rubber poppies possibly anyway hello I'm Christian Hugill and those are words I never thought I'd say on an official F1 podcast we take the questions that you send to f1explains at f1.com and find an expert to answer them.

1:58And this week, we're talking tyres with Pirelli. It's your guide to why they're important and what's changed for this season.

2:11So let's start with a quick guide to F1 tyres. Pirelli makes five different types of dry tyre, each of a different hardness. They then choose three of those types to be the soft, medium and hard for each race weekend. The red striped soft tyre gives you good grip immediately, but wears out quickly. The white hard takes time to get grippy, but lasts longer. The yellow medium is in the middle, a good balance of grip and durability. Those tyres are slick, no tread, we'll explain why later. Then there are the blue wet and green intermediate tyres, which have grooves in them to clear the water if it rains.

2:49We've mentioned Pirelli. Yvonne from Los Angeles asks, Why do all teams have to use Pirelli tyres? Well, Avon, because they are the official tyre supplier. F1 picked Pirelli to make all the tyres back in 2011. There have been times in F1 history with more than one tyre supplier being used at any one time, but it caused a few problems. It meant there were often big performance differences between cars if one supplier's tyres worked better on that racetrack. Also back then, teams were allowed to do unlimited testing and produce as many different specifications of tyres as they wanted. It was hugely expensive and not very sustainable.

3:30The other advantage of just having one tyre supplier is that it's the same for every team. It means the driver and the car makes the difference. So let's get some answers from someone who has been a huge part of F1 since Pirelli became the sole supplier. Head of motorsport at the company, Mario. es solo. Mario, a warm welcome back to F1 Explains. Great to see you. Thank you. Thank you for your invitation. It's great to be here. Let's start by asking a question we've been asking a lot on F1 Explains so far this season. How is it different in 2026? Of course, in particular, in this case, how are the 2026 tyres different from the 2025 ones?

4:13Yeah, an easy answer is they are smaller. The size is different because the first target of the new Formula 1 is to have a car that is lighter, more agile and also the tires are part of this. And that means that we had to redesign completely the tire because the size has a big influence on the footprint of the tire, that is the part of the tire in contact with the truck. And so we had to design the tires in a completely new way with the targets that are similar to last year. So the final targets are to have tires with a certain level of degradation, with different compounds able to generate different strategies and a mix of one stop, two stop and create some unpredictability during a race but clearly having a new car with different load on each tire with different speed with a different aero package that is now active and is operating the tires in a completely different way we had to redesign the tires completely yeah so the principle of the tires is still the same but as mario says they're 25 millimeters narrower at the front and the rear tires are 30 millimeters narrower they still sit on 18 inch rims so the wheel rims themselves have stayed the same Mario does those narrower tires have an impact on grip at all a little bit they are narrower as you said but also the diameter is smaller and that means that the footprint has a different shape and the level of grip on paper is slightly lower.

6:02But the most important effect on that is the overheating and the fact that having a smaller tyre, you generate more heat into the tyre because of the smaller footprint. And this is an effect that we have to control. Well, Mario, our listeners have been sending questions as they always do to f1explains at f1.com. We get questions about tyres all the time. It's a firm favourite topic of our listeners. This one comes in from Michael. Michael says, how does Pirelli choose which of the five compounds to bring to each race weekend? We have to analyze first of all the track layout and the level of energy that each track is putting into the tire so we consider tracks with uh let's assume them the the track let's categorize the track in high severity medium severity and low severity first of all second parameter is the type of tarmac how aggressive is the tarmac.

6:59For example, in Monaco you can find a street asphalt that is very small, in Bahrain is a super aggressive and this has an influence on tires. The third parameter is about weather condition expected, if the race could be very hot or quite cold, like in spa usually you don't find very warm conditions, why if you go to Singapore it's normally very very hot. And the final but probably the most important parameter is our let's call it database so we have now a lot of information coming from the past that we can compare obviously we have a different complete different situation now with the new cars the 2026 cars and we cannot just apply what we did in the past looking back at previous years and compound choosing in previous years we have to consider many parameters but our previous experience is super important F1 of course races in Japan this weekend Mario, it's a circuit with lots of long high speed corners long sweeping high speed corners tend to be harder on tyres don't they?

8:15So my guess would be this weekend it's the hardest compound of tyres. Absolutely. We decided to select C1, C2 and C3 that are the three hardest compounds in our range. There is an additional element that is important in Japan is they decided to resurface part of the track, the majority of the track, and obviously the new asphalt has an influence on the characteristics of the tyres and the level of degradation expected. So usually when you have a new tarmac, there are some elements that are difficult to predict and create a little bit of uncertainty during the race weekend. That's another element that is quite important when we select the tyres.

9:01Sometimes we don't know exactly what is going to happen on that circuit. Let's consider Madrid this year. Madrid is completely new. So what can we do for Madrid? Obviously an analysis on the layout to understand how much energy, as I said, the circuit is putting into the tyres and we work together with the teams to do that. So they send us simulations and we work around their simulation to understand this first parameter. And then we contact the promoter, the organizer, to have information also on the type of tarmac they are planning to lay down on the street, on the circuit, in order to have as much information as we can.

9:40But there is always something that is not under control, let's say. And that's something I didn't realise, Mario, until I became a bigger fan of Formula One, that even the type of tarmac used from racetrack to racetrack can have an impact on how those tyres wear. Absolutely. And that's the reason why when we go at each track, we measure the roughness and we consider micro roughness and macro roughness because they have a different effect on tire. Micro roughness is, I can translate it into how the small stones that are making the tarmac are sharp. And the macro roughness is the texture of the tarmac.

10:22And these are two elements that are quite important where we consider or we try to imagine the level of grip of each tarmac. On top of that, it's now a few years that we also measure the grip. We have what we call the grip tester. It is a small machine with a reference tire that is measuring the level of grip of each circuit. And we categorize also that. And so with all this information, we can hopefully select the best combination for each race. It's absolutely fascinating. It really is. Another of our listeners' questions, F1explains at F1.com to send in yours. Raj from Switzerland asks how many tyres does Pirelli give each team per weekend and how do they keep track of which tyres are used?

11:10The number of tyres is easy because it's defined by the regulation. There is a small difference between sprint events and standard events but I would say the total number is quite similar. we are talking about 13 sets of sleek tires per car plus five sets of intermediate tires plus two sets of extreme wet tires so the total is 20 sets per car 20 sets per car means that considering all the cars plus some spare tires that we need to be available at track we are bringing more than 1 ,800 tires per event. It's a lot of tires, isn't it, Mario? It's a lot of tires. Absolutely. And on each tire, to come to your second question, we have a barcode that is provided by the FAA.

12:01First of all, this barcode is a unique number that is the guarantee that we cannot allocate any special tire to anyone. Why I am saying that? Because once we have the production, the batch of tires available for a race, we send all the list of the barcodes to the FIA, and the FIA is making a random allocation of each tire to each driver. So it's not Pirelli who define this tire is for Hamilton, this tire is for Verstappen or whoever, but it is the FIA in a complete random way. All the tires are clearly the same, but this is an additional element to guarantee that there is no special tire for anyone.

12:48And thanks to this barcode, we can monitor and record each step of the life of the tire from the production, I would say from the raw materials that are used in the production to the end of life of the tires. Because as you probably know, at the end of each event, we collect all the tires and we recycle the tires, we send them back to UK where we have our facility and we recycle all the tires to generate secondary raw materials. So you know how important is sustainability, not only for Pirelli but for Formula One and for that reason we have this system in place with all the tires used in F1, F2 and F3.

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14:49Eva from Slovakia has asked a question on a similar line. Hi, Eva. Eva asks, who brings the tyres to each race? Is it Pirelli or is it the teams? It is Pirelli. We bring the tyres to each race. We have our fitting operations there. So the teams are bringing the rims to our fitting area. We fit the tires, balance the tires, and give the tires to the teams. At this point, and this happens usually between Wednesday and Thursday before each event, at this point, the teams are in charge of managing the tires during the weekend. Obviously, we have an engineer allocated on each team, plus a couple of technicians.

15:32They are there to support the teams in operating the tires properly. we give them prescriptions, what it means. Basically, they have to respect a minimum starting pressure. They have to stay below a certain temperature in blankets and they have to respect some parameters on camber. So there are three important elements that are camber, pressure and temperature in blankets that we control. The rest is up to the team. So also the strategies, it's not Pirelli that is making any strategy for any team. What we do, because don't forget that we have to treat everyone in the same way. Sporting equity is obviously a priority for the sport because as a sole supplier, we have not just to supply the same product to everyone, but also the same service.

16:30So our engineers are trained to collect a certain amount of data and to give those data to the teams. There are some some data that are very important. For example, we are the only one having the information and the data from all the teams. And for that reason, we create some averages like average pressure, average wear life and so on that we distribute to the teams. So teams have not confidential data from a competitor. Clearly, we cannot provide any confidential data from a competitor. But they have averages that can be useful for them to understand if their car is operating in a similar way to the others or not.

17:15The wear profile is a good example. If your wear profile is too much on the inside, you are probably using a bit more camber than the others. just to make it simple, just to explain it in a simple way. But they are very interested in the data we provide because all those averages are really important for them to try to understand how is the situation of their car compared to the others, even if we don't disclose anything confidential. And everything is agreed with all the teams, with the FIA and with F1. Absolutely. And just picking up on Eva's question again, you often see, don't you, Mario, in the F1 paddock, the teams coming to collect their tyres from your area of the paddock.

18:02And then you see mechanics mounting the tyres onto the rims, marking them with the driver's initials so they don't get mixed up. So you often see that in a Formula One paddock. Our next question is from Dylan, who's in California. Dylan says, I'm a huge fan of the podcast and always find it very interesting. Thank you, Dylan. Dylan says, my question on tyres is why are they slick? Being that normal people drive road cars with tread, it sometimes seems counterintuitive, but I know there has to be good reason behind it. Dylan's right, Disney Mario. Pirelli tyres are slick. If you're new to motorsport, that means basically completely flat.

18:39Not always been the case in Formula One. in the Bridgestone era of tyres we saw them having grooves in the 2000s that that's not the case anymore is it Mario just explain why? Correct it is a very very good question the reason why they are sleek is that you can optimize the performance on a sleek tyre clearly grooves are creating some uneven wear or other kind of problems when you run over a dry track and so it was decided after The Bridgestone era, as you said, when we had some grooves, but also the grooves were defined by the regulation. So everything is usually defined by regulation. And it was decided to come back to a slick tire.

19:22In competition, slick tires are able to give you the best performance in dry condition. And that's the reason why it was decided to go back to slick tires. The grooves were introduced, if I'm not wrong, because we are talking about many, many years ago. to try to limit the performance of the cars. No, you're right, you're absolutely right. Yes, it was designed to slow the cars down a bit in that particular aerodynamic area, you're absolutely right. Yeah, unfortunately or fortunately, teams are so good that despite the grooves they were very fast. They realized that probably the grooves were not the way to go to limit performance, you need to action in a different way.

20:07Absolutely. Now Moira is in Austin, Texas, somewhere you and I have been many times, Mario, one of our favourite points in the F1 calendar. Moira asks, do all types of tyre weigh the same or are some heavier than others? That's a really good question. Are there minute differences in the tyres, Mario? If we're talking about slick tyres, they are weighting the same because by regulation, again, they must have the same construction. So the only difference is the compound on top of the tire, the thread compound. Differences in weight, if we are talking about the thread compound, are very, very, very small.

20:44So we cannot consider a difference in weight. While if we consider the intermediate and wet tires, they have a different weight. Also because intermediate are slightly bigger in diameter, and the same is for the wet tires. We're talking about 5 millimeters on the diameter for the intermediate tyres and 10mm for the wet tyres. Why this difference? It was a request from the teams to try to raise a little bit the ride height of the car in case of wet condition. So they asked us many years ago when we came back to Formula 1 in 2011 to have the intermediate tyre and the extreme wet tyre with a slightly bigger diameter for performance reasons mainly.

21:29Right. Two similar questions now. What is from an F1 Explains regular listener? And I'm going to pronounce the name Eurogos. Eurogos, please let me know if I'm pronouncing your name wrong. You kindly send us questions a lot. He's from Athens in Greece, Mario. And I don't know if I'm pronouncing Eurogos right, but I'm doing my best. That's all you can do. So Eurogos from Athens in Greece asks, who pays for the tyres? And Michael, with a more easy to pronounce name, in Port Byron, New York, asks, do the teams pay for only the tyres they actually use? So how does payment around these things work, Mario?

22:06It's a nice question, but it's not like when you go to your dealer to buy a set of tyres for your car. There is an agreement, there is a contract in place where obviously teams are paying for the full service provided by Pirelli and obviously we pay for some of the sponsorship we have with all the teams. So there is, let's say, a payment of the tyres, but it's more, yeah, it's a forfeit. It's something that is covering transportation, logistics, fitting assistance and tyres themselves. Yeah. So unfortunately, in terms of Michael's question, the teams can't apply for a refund if they don't use a particular set of intermediates that weekend.

22:51It doesn't work like that. They don't get to keep the receipt and take them back to you. Let me add, we are not making money from Formula 1. It's clear they are going to pay, but it's a contribution, it's not the cost, the real cost of the tires. Because with 24 races around the world and all the people that we have to take around the world, the R &D cost associated to the development of those tires. The costas are quite big, but we learn a lot from Formula 1. We say one of our slogan is from race to road, but it's true. We learn from the best championships in the world and Formula 1 is the pinnacle of motorsport.

23:38We develop a lot of technology, new materials, light materials, but with a great resistance to any type of stress materials that are able to manage in a proper way the heat that is coming into the tire new geometries new ideas we had a possibility and that's probably the the most important activity that we have in Formula one we had a possibility to develop a termo mechanical model of the tire a virtual tire that we supply to the teams they use it in their and they come back to us with their feedback. Thanks to this continuous exchange of information from Pirelli to the teams and back from the teams to Pirelli, we had the possibility to develop a virtual model of the tires that are very reliable and very accurate.

24:30And when you have the technology in the company, you can use the same technology for all the tires. And that means that you accelerate the development we made a calculation is roughly 30 % quicker this kind of development because you don't have to build the physical prototypes every time you are making a change in the materials, in the geometries, in whatever you want. You can do that with a computer and doing that with a computer is much, much quicker and more sustainable. We are producing a lot less physical prototypes than in the past. When we moved, you remember probably a few years ago, from 13 inch to 18 inch tires and it was a big change as the same that we had this year.

25:21We developed 70 different specifications of tires in the virtual environment but we tested only 30, less than half. And it was possible thanks to this activity that we have with the teams with a virtual tyre. Mario, one of the many great things about Formula 1 is exactly as you've just said, the fact that the technology does sort of seep all the way down the ladder from the very pinnacle of motorsport and automotive engineering in Formula 1 right down to the cars that we drive. And many people listening to this will have Pirelli tyres on their road cars. And Mario, one of the things we like to do on this podcast is celebrate the unsung heroes of Formula One and the people behind the scenes.

26:06And you yourself, Mario, and your team work so hard and have such a contribution to Formula One. So thank you for all the work you do and making sure we get entertained at the weekends. And thank you for taking the time to explain how that work works on F1 Explains. We really appreciate it, Mario. Thank you. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to explain, because sometimes it's not easy to explain technical stuff to people, and that's a great opportunity. So thank you very much for your invitation. You do a great job. Great to talk to you. All the best, Mario. Take care. Thank you. Bye-bye.

26:42Thank you very much to Mario Asola, head of motorsport at Pirelli, a lovely man who is absolutely fantastic at talking all things tyres, as you would expect. Really enjoy having Mario on the podcast. So enjoy the Japanese Grand Prix this weekend. Of course, you can follow it on Apple TV in the US or F1 TV around the world. Right here on this very feed, the F1 Nation podcast will be back on Monday with Tom and the team's review of the weekend at Suzuka. And we're not going anywhere in the next few weeks. We've got some great guests lined up for F1 Explains. If you have a question for the wonderful Bernie Collins, a firm favourite of F1 Explains, on race strategy or anything else you want to ask Bernie for that matter in 2026.

27:23Bernie's making her first appearance of the season soon. Drop us an email for Bernie. We've also got the Haas race engineer, Laura Muller, talking about her job in the coming weeks. Send any of your questions, f1explains at f1.com, and we'll put them to Bernie, Laura, or any of our future guests. We'll be back next Friday with a familiar voice. He will be on next week's episode after we promised him the other week, then super subbed in for Lawrence Barreto. And we know he'll be on because we've already recorded it. So that helps. It is F1 TV and Apple TV commentator Alex Jakes. We'll be talking all things commentary with Alex Jakes because boy, have you been sending questions on the art of commentary.

28:02Looking forward to digging into that with Jakesy. Until then, thank you so much for listening. Enjoy your week. We'll be back next Friday. All the best. Speak to you then. Bye for now.

28:38Thank you. you get your podcasts.