From Pirelli
Following a successful debut in Australia, characterised by plenty of on-track action and a wide variety of race strategies, Pirelli heads next weekend to the Malaysian Grand Prix: a completely different type of challenge.
The Sepang circuit is one of the hottest and certainly the most humid venue of the year, with temperatures in the region of 35 degrees centigrade and 80% humidity. The track is demanding on the tires due to its aggressive surface, heavy braking areas, long straights and wide variety of speeds and corners.
Once again Pirelli has nominated the hard and soft compound PZero tyres as the prime and option rubber respectively for Malaysia, as was the case in Australia.
But the ever-present humidity in Malaysia makes rain almost inevitable at some point over the weekend. This means that Pirelli’s intermediate and wet tires stand a strong chance of making their competitive debut at Sepang.
During the two free practice sessions on Friday, Pirelli will be providing extra two sets of dry-weather tires for the teams to assess. The new tire is an experimental hard compound that could be used in the future. The tire allocation for the rest of the weekend, from Saturday onwards, is not affected.
“We said all along that we would be seeing two to three pit stops in Australia, but in Malaysia I think that figure is likely to increase to three to four,” said Paul Hembery, Pirelli’s Motorsport Director.
The highest number of pit stops in the history of the Malaysian Grand Prix was in 2004. There were a total of 56 stops, the equivalent of 2.8 pit stops per driver. In 2009, there were 50 pit stops in the space of just 30 laps before the race was red-flagged.
Following a successful debut in Australia, characterised by plenty of on-track action and a wide variety of race strategies, Pirelli heads next weekend to the Malaysian Grand Prix: a completely different type of challenge.
The Sepang circuit is one of the hottest and certainly the most humid venue of the year, with temperatures in the region of 35 degrees centigrade and 80% humidity. The track is demanding on the tires due to its aggressive surface, heavy braking areas, long straights and wide variety of speeds and corners.
 |
| Adrian Sutil, Force India (Photo: WRI2) |
Once again Pirelli has nominated the hard and soft compound PZero tyres as the prime and option rubber respectively for Malaysia, as was the case in Australia.
But the ever-present humidity in Malaysia makes rain almost inevitable at some point over the weekend. This means that Pirelli’s intermediate and wet tires stand a strong chance of making their competitive debut at Sepang.
During the two free practice sessions on Friday, Pirelli will be providing extra two sets of dry-weather tires for the teams to assess. The new tire is an experimental hard compound that could be used in the future. The tire allocation for the rest of the weekend, from Saturday onwards, is not affected.
“We said all along that we would be seeing two to three pit stops in Australia, but in Malaysia I think that figure is likely to increase to three to four,” said Paul Hembery, Pirelli’s Motorsport Director.
The highest number of pit stops in the history of the Malaysian Grand Prix was in 2004. There were a total of 56 stops, the equivalent of 2.8 pit stops per driver. In 2009, there were 50 pit stops in the space of just 30 laps before the race was red-flagged.