Renault: Not much to choose between soft, supersoft and ultrasoft
Renault’s chief technical officer Bob Bell says the performance differences between the three compounds Pirelli has selected for the 2018 Formula 1 opener in Australia is minimal while he also isn’t confident anyone has unlocked a complete understanding from this year’s tyre range.
Pirelli preselected the soft, supersoft and ultrasoft tyre options for the Australian Grand Prix from its 2018 tyre compounds with the use of two different options mandatory for each driver during the race.
Renault’s chief technical officer Bob Bell says the performance differences between the three compounds Pirelli has selected for the 2018 Formula 1 opener in Australia is minimal while he also isn’t confident anyone has unlocked a complete understanding from this year’s tyre range.
Pirelli preselected the soft, supersoft and ultrasoft tyre options for the Australian Grand Prix from its 2018 tyre compounds with the use of two different options mandatory for each driver during the race.
Lewis Hamilton’s Australian GP tyre picks raised eyebrows as he went for the most aggressive strategy on the grid with just one set of softs to maximise his allocation of the supersoft and ultrasoft tyres.
While Renault pair Nico Hulkenberg and Carlos Sainz both opted to go one step more conservative – two soft, four supersoft, seven ultrasoft – the team’s technical head Bell has played down the performance differential between the compounds.
“I think from Barcelona we learnt there isn’t much to choose between the soft, supersoft and ultrasoft which we will have in Melbourne, but that might be a quirk from Barcelona and the temperatures we saw there,” Bell said. “The Hypersoft is a good step in terms of performance.
“It’s too early to judge the usefulness of the new tyre range. We will have to get a few races under our belt at normal temperature conditions to assess that.”
For 2018 Pirelli has expanded its tyre compound range with seven dry tyre options ranging from the new hypersoft to the superhard.
The softest compound of its range, the hypersoft, is expected to make its race debut in Monaco and quickly followed at the Canadian Grand Prix – with the North American race tyre options already confirmed due to Pirelli’s shipping rules for flyaway races.
Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel used the new hypersoft to set an unofficial lap record at Circuit de Catalunya during pre-season testing with a 1m 17.182s – almost 1.5s faster than the previous year’s testing best lap.
