Liberty Media strike common sense with Pirelli tyres

Struggle to tell the difference between a supersoft and a hypersoft? Fear not, Formula 1 tyres are about to get a whole lot simpler, and not before time. Pirelli have confirmed that F1 have requested that tyres for a grand prix be named 'hard', 'medium', and 'soft' - regardless of compound - from next season.

Pirelli have concocted seven slick compounds for 2018, ranging from superhard to hypersoft - the grippiest tyre that is making its debut at this week's Monaco Grand Prix.

Although the range of compounds will remain in place and be selected for each race as they are now. The, somewhat ludicrous, names are likely to be ditched from next year.

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"We've had a request from FOM and FIA to just call them hard, medium and soft," the Italian manufacturer's head of car racing Mario Isola told reporters. "With three colours, the same colours and same names for all the races.

"But obviously different compounds, because you cannot use the same compounds in Silverstone or Monaco.

"On a second level we will have compound A, B, C, D, E, F or whatever, and we will tell you that for this race, the hard is B, the medium is D, and whatever.

"So for spectators it's probably more understandable, but you also have the possibility to go deeper in detail for technical information that we will continue to provide. It's an ongoing discussion, but we said we are available to evaluate this change."

The rainbow set of colours that adorn the tyres will also be scaled back, something that Isola says will be easy to produce.

"I made a check with production and logistics, obviously we need to understand all the implications," said Isola.

"We produce a specific batch for each race, to be sure that they all come from the same batch, so honestly to put a purple label or a yellow label or any other colour is not a big issue."