Source: Pirelli Media

F1 News

Pirelli unveil 2019 tyre colours

Pirelli unveil 2019 tyre colours

20-10-2018 14:16
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Jake Williams-Smith

Pirelli introduced their 2019 tyre colours in Austin after Friday practice, confirming that only three colours would be used from next season onwards to designate the type of compound: red, yellow and white.

As part of a strategy to simplify the tyres for viewers, Pirelli will still manufacture six dry weather compounds as well as the two wet weather tyre types and will continue to bring just three tyre compounds to a race, however, each compound will be painted one of the three colours depending on their type relative to the other two.

Pirelli motorsport director Mario Isola confirmed that the move was designed to eliminate confusion for those watching the races as well as to maintain the unpredictability of tyre strategy for teams.

“We wanted to eliminate the rainbow as we had too many colours - so we wanted to have just three," Isola told media on Friday in Austin.

Isola also confirmed that the tyres would be differentiated by numbers or letters, but added that they hadn't settled yet on which system they would use.

“The idea is to give a number to each compound,” he added.

“We are currently discussing that, because I've had a chat now with the engineers – they prefer a letter for the system. But basically we will have a clear identification of each compound.

“So if we are going to homologate five compounds, there will be one, two, three, four, five, and we give you the information in advance, so you know that for this race the hard is number two, the medium is three, the soft is four. So you can compare at different circuits. But for spectators there will be three colours.

“We will give the information to everybody in advance, because teams have to make their choice, their selection, but they are not on the sidewalls.