The Sprint Race provided Pirelli with the final answers it was looking for ahead of Sunday’s British Grand Prix at Silverstone. After almost the entire field completed the Sprint on the Medium compound, Dario Marrafuschi, Pirelli’s Head of Formula 1 Programme, confirmed that tyre behaviour matched expectations perfectly, strengthening the prediction that the Grand Prix will be a one-stop race. As things stand, Sunday’s strategic picture appears to be largely settled.
Medium tyre delivers, minimal degradation makes one-stop strategy the clear favourite
Pirelli came away from the Sprint extremely satisfied with what it observed. “There isn’t much to say, and that’s good news,” Marrafuschi began. “The Sprint was run almost entirely on the Medium tyre, and we’re very pleased with how it performed. I heard some people talking about graining during the race. We analysed the tyres and it wasn’t graining. It was most likely just pickup collected during the race. The C2 compound behaved extremely consistently.”
The most significant takeaway was the remarkably low tyre degradation.
“Andrea Kimi Antonelli set the fastest lap on the very last lap of the Sprint. That clearly shows degradation was virtually non-existent. It is also worth noting that several other drivers, including both Ferrari drivers and the two McLarens, also recorded their fastest laps on the final lap of the Sprint.
Marrafuschi believes the new Formula 1 regulations and their energy management systems are helping preserve tyre performance: “I think energy management is helping. Through the high-speed corners, the cars are travelling slightly slower than our original simulations predicted, and that naturally reduces tyre wear.”
Weather conditions have also played a key role.
“Compared to Austria, it’s a completely different world. Temperatures are much milder, and everything is working exactly as expected. We predicted a pole position lap of 1:28.1, and that is exactly the lap time that was achieved.”
As a result, Pirelli remains convinced that a one-stop race is the optimal strategy: “The most likely strategy is still a single pit stop. A pit stop costs around 22 seconds, and according to our simulations, a two-stop strategy would lose roughly 13 seconds overall.”
The fastest strategy remains Medium followed by Hard.
“The ideal pit window opens around lap 24 and closes around lap 30. Hard followed by Medium produces almost the same overall race time, but we expect most teams to choose Medium-Hard because many have preserved a fresh set of Hard tyres. If the strategy is reversed, the pit window shifts to between laps 28 and 34.”
Soft tyre reserved for special circumstances
Pirelli does not expect the Soft compound to play a significant role in the race.
“We also simulated a Medium-Soft strategy, but it is around five and a half seconds slower than Medium-Hard. It would also require completing more than twenty laps on the Soft tyre, which is a rather critical limitation. The front-left tyre experiences the highest loads, so if a car tends to understeer, I honestly wouldn’t recommend using the Soft compound.”
The only realistic scenario where the Soft tyre could become attractive would be a late-race neutralisation: “If a Safety Car comes out during the final 15 to 20 laps, then the Soft tyre could become an interesting option. For a stint of around fifteen laps, it can work very well.”
Marrafuschi also revealed that several teams experimented with different setup philosophies during the Sprint in an effort to improve front tyre warm-up: “We saw some teams running different configurations on their two cars, with one set up to generate more understeer and the other more oversteer, trying to understand how to build temperature in the front tyres.”
However, the conclusions were fairly clear.
“Understeer increases front tyre wear without actually generating more temperature. From a tyre perspective, I don’t believe that’s the right direction to take.”
Energy management and Pirelli’s 2027 tyre development programme
Marrafuschi also discussed the growing influence of energy management on tyre behaviour and how it could shape future tyre development.
“It’s something we only fully understand during a race weekend because teams constantly change their energy deployment strategies. From an engineering perspective, it’s definitely an aspect we need to consider for the future. We’re not talking about huge performance differences over a single lap, but rather differences in tyre wear. Our lap-time simulations were almost perfect. The main effect is simply that teams can manage tyre degradation more effectively through the fast corners.”
Finally, he outlined Pirelli’s testing programme for next week, which will be crucial in finalising the tyres for Formula 1’s 2027 regulations: “The programme will focus mainly on the C2 compound and will primarily serve to finalise the construction of next year’s tyres. We still have a few options under evaluation, but we want to complete the project as early as next week.”
The goal is to meet Formula 1’s regulatory deadlines.
“By September we must provide all teams with the final construction data. That’s why we want to gather all the necessary information now, while still keeping a backup plan in place should any small refinements be required before homologation.”
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