The 2025 F1 season is just weeks away.
Tomorrow, the season will be its first event, unofficially starting with the launch of the season at O2 in London. To celebrate the 75th anniversary of the sport, the teams are coming together to announce their liver for this season. It is expected that 20 drivers and the principals of each team will be present. Among the many stories at this event? Lewis Hamilton's true public debut as Ferrari driver.
Then all 10 teams will be active next week for preseason testing at Bahrain International Circuit.
There are a few changes to discuss ahead of the 2025 season, but this is the best time to talk about tires.
Who is offering tires for F1?
Since 2011, Italian manufacturer Pirelli has been the exclusive tire supplier for F1. Pirelli was one of four tire manufacturers that supplied tires in 1950, the first season of the sport, and the company has been associated with the sport since its founding.
In October 2023, the company signed a new agreement with F1, offering the option to maintain the sport's exclusive tire supplier throughout the 2027 season and extend additional annual contracts.
Over the past 14 seasons, Pirelli has supported Formula 1 as it has experienced a variety of changes, both technical and sport regulations, including its return to ground effects cars for the 2022 season. The current contract extension also means that Pirelli will become the exclusive tire supplier for the next technical change that will come into effect in the 2026 Formula 1 season.
What kind of tires are available?
In general, there are two types of tires. Slicks and wet weather tires. As you can see, there are a variety of compounds available for both smooth and wet weather tires.
Slick tires do not have a tread, and are the main tires used during practice, qualifying and races, with different compounds offering different grip levels available to the driver. Teams will only rely on one of two types of wet weather tires if the amount of water present on the track is difficult enough to drive on slick tires.
What smooth compounds are available in 2025?
This season, Pirelli has six smooth compounds, ranging from the hardest to the softest of C1, C2, C3, C4, C5 and C6 compounds.
The C6 is the ultra-flexible compound Pirelli has introduced this season and is expected to be used in street circuits.
As a rule of thumb, the softer the compound, the higher the grip level, but the lower the durability. Conversely, the stiffer the compound, the less grip the driver will have, but it will stay on the truck for a long period of time.
Pirelli for each race weekend specifies three compounds for use: “hard”, “medium”, and “soft”, based on the characteristics of a particular circuit. This means that a week of compound is designated as hard, but due to the characteristics of the next week's circuit, that same compound suddenly becomes the medium.
Once these designations are created, tires for a particular race weekend will be given color specifications on the outside so that fans can identify the compounds each driver is using. Hard tires are given a white band, medium tires are given a yellow band, soft tires are given a red band. In this image below, you can see Pirelli engineers working on a medium tire set.
Photo by Jakub Porzycki/Nurphoto via Getty Images
Due to grip levels, softer tires are usually used for short stints during qualifying or during races. Media and hard are usually preferred on Sundays, but there are strategies to look at right away, so at the start of the race, teams may bolt and bolt on a set of softs to try and pick up the track's position. yeah. Or at the closure stage to make up for the time.
The 2025 Formula 1 season began with the Australian Grand Prix, and in last year's race, Pirelli designated three softest compounds in its range, C3, C4 and C5, as three options for the week. C3 was a hard compound, C4 stood as a medium, and C5 was soft.
Pirelli has yet to identify the three compounds that will be used at this year's Australian Grand Prix, but with the introduction of the C6 this season, Ultrasoft could soon be seen.
What meteorological compounds are available in 2025?
As in previous season, there are two wet weather tires available to the team.
The first is the “intermediate.” This is used in a damp state where there is no water standing on the truck. The tread on this tire will allow you to move 35-40 liters of water per second to 35-40 liters of water per second. According to Pirelli. This means that an F1 car with four intermediate tires can replace 150 liters of water per second at that speed. These tires are designated with green bands on the sides.
Then there are fully “wet” tires that are used when water is standing on the truck or during heavy rain. Pirelli points out that a fully wet tire can double the amount of intermediate counterparts given the tread depth.
How many tires do each driver get on the race weekend?
Tire allocation depends on whether the race in question is the standard Grand Prix weekend for the Formula 1 Sprint Race.
For standard Grand Prix weekends, drivers will be given an allocation of 13 sets of dry weather tires, 4 sets of intermediates, and 3 sets of full wet tires. The slick tires are disassembled as follows: 2 sets of hard, 3 sets of media, 8 sets of soft.
The driver will also need to return two sets of tires to the Pirelli following each of the three practice sessions, leaving behind seven sets of qualifying and the race itself.
Tire allocation drops from 13 sets to 12 on the weekend of the F1 sprint race. The driver receives two sets of hardware, four media, and six software. The total number of wet weather sets remains the same, but will be five intermediate sets and two wet sets.
Also, on weekends of F1 sprint races, drivers will need to use medium compounds in both SQ1 and SQ2, and if they progress to the final segment of qualifying, they can only be bolted with the soft bolts in SQ3.
What other rules should fans know about tire use?
Here's the last thing you need to know about using tires in F1: If the race is considered “dry” by race officials, the driver must use two different compounds during the race. For example, a driver starting a particular race in a series of media must create at least one pit stop to switch to soft or hard. Alternatively, if the driver starts on a series of hards and puts in a long stint to start the race, it will need to stop at least once to switch to either media or software.
Using two different compounds, this rule requirement was met. For example, Carlos Sign Junior, who won the Australian Grand Prix in 2024. I started with a set of medium tirespits on lap 16 and switches to hard, then pits again on lap 42 for another hard set.
Another example is George Russell. He won the 2024 Austrian Grand Prix after a collision between Max Verstappen and Rand Norris before him opened the door for Mercedes drivers to strike forward. Russell I started that race with a series of mediapitted on lap 22 for another set of media and switched to hard when he entered the pit on lap 46.
This rule will not work if a race official designates the race as “wet” due to weather conditions. This means that in rainy weather, teams may run the entire race on the same tire set. However, tire wear may require fresh rubber pit stops.
