Pirelli confirm Montreal, Austria and ‘new-spec’ Silverstone tyre choices

Pirelli have confirmed their tyre compounds for the Canadian, Austrian and British Grands Prix – with a new specification of tyre set to debut at Silverstone in July.

As per previous seasons, Pirelli confirmed that the softest C3, C4 and C5 tyres will be the hard, medium and soft compounds in Canada and Austria respectively, with tyre wear not an enormous issue around Montreal and Spielberg.

But at Silverstone, the new C1 compound as debuted in Barcelona will also be used as the hard tyre in Britain, along with the C2 and C3 compounds as the medium and softs respectively.

The British Grand Prix will also see Pirelli debut a new specification of tyre which the manufacturers say is “more resistant to fatigue”, bringing forward a planned material change for 2024 with the speed of the cars having increased at a faster rate than anticipated.

This pace improvement from the cars compared to last year, by more than a second per lap at several circuits so far this season, has put more pressure on the tyres, meaning they are put under more stress and the drivers have to manage more wear as the race progresses.

The drivers have already had the opportunity to try the new Silverstone-spec tyres, with two sets having been made available to each driver in free practice at the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona at the weekend.

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Elsewhere, Pirelli conducted two days of 2024 tyre testing earlier this week in Barcelona with Mercedes and Ferrari, without the use of heated tyre blankets – with Formula 1 evaluating whether or not to introduce a ban on them from next season.

George Russell, Mick Schumacher, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz clocked up 617 laps of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya between them on Tuesday and Wednesday as key data was gathered in that regard.