Pirelli confirms Monaco GP debut for hypersoft tyre

Pirelli has confirmed the expected F1 race debut for its new hypersoft tyres will be at the Monaco Grand Prix after announcing its nominated tyre compound options.

Earlier this month the F1 tyre manufacturer announced the hypersoft tyres would make a provisional debut at the Canadian Grand Prix, held two weeks after the Monaco race, with tyre picks for long-haul events made six weeks earlier than the European race deadlines.

During F1 pre-season testing in Barcelona Pirelli chief Mario Isola said its softest 2018 tyre compound would provisionally make its race debut in Monaco after producing sufficient data during the tests.

Pirelli has also picked the ultrasoft and supersoft compounds to go with the hypersoft for Monaco – the same range for the Canada race – which is the softest compound options available in 2018.

Isola has predicted a lap time performance step between the ultrasoft and hypersoft between 0.7s and 0.9s going on its testing data from Abu Dhabi and Barcelona but warns the figure could change due to track surface and temperature differences.

“Between the ultrasoft and the hypersoft and this is in line with what we saw in Abu Dhabi,” Isola said during F1 testing. “In Barcelona it was 0.7s to 0.8s. In Abu Dhabi we found 0.9s. So it is not a big difference I would say.

“These are the numbers coming from an average made from different teams. The biggest difference compared to last year is the tarmac which has completely different properties compared to the old one. The old one was quite abrasive with a lot of degradation, a lot of wear and suitable for the harder compounds.”