“It will be completely different from Bahrain” Pirelli warns F1 teams ahead of visit to Jeddah
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Lewis and Max
The Pirelli group is all set to bring its most usual range of tires in recent years to the upcoming Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. The tire manufacturer is going to bring the C2, C3, and, C4 – as Hard, Medium, and Soft for the upcoming extravaganza.
The Saudi Grand Prix could prove to be a challenge for the 10 teams as they have no past experience of running the new 18-inch Pirelli tires in Saudi Arabia.
During the upcoming weekend, F1 is going to run in Jeddah again in a span of under four months and will do so with the same compounds that were run in last season’s Grand Prix.
The Jeddah Grand Prix is a confusing race in terms of strategy and it will be interesting to see what type of strategies the teams are going to come up with this time in Saudi Arabia.
The head of Pirelli, Mario Isola, has indicated that this weekend teams and drivers will face a different challenge from Bahrain because, in addition to being a totally different circuit from Bahrain, no one has had the option of shooting in Jeddah with the new cars.
Isola believes the lack of experience could play in favor of some and vice versa.
Pirelli boss believes that Jeddah will pose a stiff challenge to the 10 teams
“Jeddah marks a completely different challenge to Bahrain. The circuit is very different, both in terms of layout and asphalt. The drivers will use softer compounds this weekend, which we have adapted to the specific demands of a track that is almost as fast as the one in Monza. In addition, the teams arrive here without experience.”
Pirelli’s head, Isola has also pointed to the fact that it is going to be a completely different experience for the teams as this season’s race is taking place in March as compared to last year. Moreover, the Jeddah track has gone through some modifications for the upcoming race and Formula One has not had the opportunity to run the new 18 inch tires there.
The Saudi Arabian Grand Prix is a night race and Isola feels, the Free Practice 2 session is going to be the key for all the teams in order to come up with the best setup for their respective cars.
“The conditions will also be different from the first visit to Saudi Arabia, as the race takes place in a different month and there are also some modifications. The compounds are the same as last year, but the form has changed. Therefore, the teams will have a lot of work to do, especially in Free Practice 2, which is the only representative session for qualifying and the race.”
The 2021 season’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix was “deemed” by analysts as one of the craziest races in Formula One’s history and if we go by what happened last year and consider the new regulation changes, the upcoming Grand Prix could prove to be another race where things could go ‘haywire’ for the 10 participating teams.
Also Read: “We’ll strip the cars” Christian Horner eager to fix RB18’s issues ahead of Saudi Grand Prix
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Rishabh Negi
(3244 Articles Published)