F1 Australian Grand Prix Tyres: Compounds in play, and what are the regulations?

Stacks of new tyres sitting in the garage — Photo: © LAT Images

Australian Grand Prix

F1 Australian Grand Prix Tyres: Compounds in play, and what are the regulations?

Formula 1 has returned to Albert Park, Melbourne, with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen on pole for Sunday’s race.

Jack Walker

Saturday 1 April 2023 18:15 Updated: 22:38

F1 has returned to Albert Park with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen on pole for Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix.

Two-time world champion Verstappen leads the drivers’ championship after the opening two races.

Both Verstappen and his team-mate Sergio Perez have a win and second-place finish to their name so far, with the Dutchman’s fastest lap in Saudi Arabia two weeks ago giving him a one-point advantage.

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The Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso completed the podium in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia but will start behind the Mercedes duo of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton.

Which tyre compounds are in use at the Australian GP?

For the Australian Grand Prix, teams have all three dry-compound tyres to choose from as usual. These are the Pirelli ‘C2’ P Zero White hard tyre, the ‘C3’ P Zero Yellow medium tyre, and the quickest compound over a single lap, the ‘C4’ P Zero Red soft tyre.

Wet-weather tyres - the intermediates (green) and full wets (blue) – may also be called into play on Sunday, but no further rain is forecast for the remainder of the weekend.

“We’ve made the same tyre choice as we did back in 2019 for the Australian Grand Prix,” Pirelli’s Motorsport Director Mario Isola told F1.com.

“Following a two-year absence from the calendar due to the Covid pandemic, we went for a gap in the nominated compounds last year: selecting the C2, C3 and then the softest C5 compound.”

The decision to select the C5 over the C4 tyre raised eyebrows, and it is not at all surprising to see normality resumed in that regard.

How many sets of tyres do each team get?

The 10 teams were allocated two sets of the hard tyre, three sets of mediums, and eight sets of softs per car for the weekend.

Every driver also had four sets of the intermediate tyres and three full wets at their disposal should the heavens open.

What tyres do each team start the race on?

Drivers who qualified in the top 10 were previously required to start the grand prix on the tyres used in Q2 on a Saturday.

However, this regulation was removed ahead of the 2022 season, meaning the top 10 is now afforded a free tyre choice as well as those eliminated in the first two sessions of qualifying.

Melbourne Pit Stops: What do the stats tell us?

As was widely expected, every team went for a one-stop pit strategy at the Saudi Arabian GP two weeks ago, with a medium-to-hard strategy being the most favoured, and another one-stopper is odds-on in Melbourne.

Last year, every driver who finished in the top nine swapped mediums for hards between laps 17 and 23 at Albert Park, but Alex Albon drove through the field from last to finish an impressive tenth by racing on the hard tyres for all but one lap.

While that was an anomaly at the time, it will be intriguing to see whether another driver starting the race low down in the order tries to replicate this.

Safety cars can throw strategies out the window and would be a major help if someone does go for the spectacular, as half the time is lost to your opponents than usual when pitting under the safety car.

Degradation: How hard is the Australian Grand Prix on tyres?

Conditions in Melbourne are nowhere near as warm as in Saudi Arabia last time out, so tyre degradation around Albert Park will be. This being said, it is still imperative that teams time their pit stops perfectly as time will be lost once the tyres drop off a cliff.

The only should time we should see a two-stop strategy is if the hard tyres show higher degradation than normal, but 2022’s race showed us this shouldn’t be an issue. In fact, Lance Stroll re-fitted the hard tyres he started the race on when making his third stop here last year.