The 2025 Formula 1 season will kick off next week in Australia, but as usual, Pirelli has already planned ahead for the upcoming non-European rounds, where the tire selection must be announced well in advance compared to races in the Old Continent. Today, the Italian manufacturer confirmed to all teams the dry tire selection for the Japanese, Bahraini, and Saudi Arabian Grands Prix, which are the third, fourth, and fifth rounds of the 2025 championship.
For the first four races, the selection will be identical to last season’s, as the hardest compounds will again be used in Suzuka and Bahrain due to the severity of these circuits. However, Jeddah will see a change. For the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, scheduled for April 18-20 on the well-known high-speed street circuit, Pirelli has opted for tires that are one step softer than in 2024: C3 as Hard, C4 as Medium, and C5 as Soft.
In previous years, the Italian manufacturer had never gone this soft in Jeddah, given the numerous high-speed sections that put significant lateral stress on the tires. However, the Saudi asphalt is among the best on the calendar in terms of grip, and this year, Pirelli has decided to spice up strategies by bringing softer compounds.
“Based on last year’s experience and the insights gathered during the development of the new compounds, we wanted to go in this direction to offer teams and drivers a wider range of strategic options,” explained Mario Isola, Pirelli Motorsport Director.
Due to the circuit’s high grip level, race strategies often leaned towards a one-stop approach, offering little strategic variation. “In 2024, an early safety car led 14 drivers who had started on the C3 (then the Medium) to switch immediately to the C2 (then the Hard), which they kept until the end. With a softer selection, we believe conditions may arise for a mix of one- and two-stop strategies.”
For the other races, as previously mentioned, the selection remains unchanged in both Suzuka and Sakhir, as they are traditionally among the toughest tracks on tires. The Japanese circuit exerts extremely high lateral forces due to its long sweeping corners, not only in the first sector but throughout the lap. Bahrain, on the other hand, is particularly demanding in terms of degradation, both due to its “stop-and-go” layout that stresses the rear axle and the track surface, which has never been resurfaced. It is therefore logical to retain the hardest compound trio (C1 as Hard, C2 as Medium, and C3 as Soft) for these two rounds.
Since the selections for Melbourne (C3, C4, C5) and Shanghai (C2, C3, C4) are identical to those of 2024, only one compound from the new range, the debuting C6, will be absent in this early part of the season, though it may make its debut as early as Imola.
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