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There are suggestions that Pirelli could be introducing a new tyre for the 2018 season, after its newly designed 2017 tyres have been much more durable and long-lasting. The Italian supplier last crafted up a new compound in 2016 when the purple-walled ultra-soft was introduced.
Under the old Pirelli designs, drivers were forced to heavily preserve the tyre to keep the life in them for as long as possible. This year, that's much easier to do due to the nature of how they degrade, making them last much longer.
The orange-walled hard compound, which is the hardest of all the compounds, has been scrapped for the rest of the season after it was deemed all but useless at the Spanish Grand Prix earlier this year.
Referring to the recent Montreal race, Haas team boss Gunther Steiner said of the so-called 'super soft' compound: "We could have done three races with this tyre." Renault's Nico Hulkenberg agreed: "If you look at the tyres after 30 laps, they're like new."
Germany's Auto Motor und Sport spoke out about a possible solution, which would be to bring in an even softer tyre. If it was to be done, the covers wouldn't be thrown off until the 2018 season, and it would be called te mega-soft tyre.
Fergal Walsh
Grand Prix of Belgium
G. Zhou
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calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
One more tyre wouldnt solve the issue, they are all harder than they are supposed to be, and none of the teams has used the very hard compound so far. Make an actual ultra soft tyre, mark them as ultra soft, label the current US as SS, SS as S, and so on, and ditch the current VH compound. And ma... [Read more]