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During the past season, Pirelli was criticized by the pilots for overgrading tires, which had a negative impact on the competition. The tire manufacturer has refuted the allegations each time, documenting that such and no other levels of degradation had been imposed by the F1 champions.
For the 2019 season, Pirelli has set a goal to improve the performance of hard tires, deemed too conservative and very rarely used, and increased the difference in performance between soft tires, among others. by giving up the most popular super soft tire this year.
In addition to the changes in the characteristics of the tires, Pirelli and the FIA modify the name of the tire. In theory, this procedure aims to simplify the recognition of tire fans, but in practice it can only be an additional complexity of the whole.
As for this season, Pirelli will provide teams with three smooth tire mixes for each race next year. These will always be described as soft, medium and hard, but the most curious fans will be able to see the detailed specifications of each of them, as this year, the mixes will be chosen for each race from a range more wide of sweetness.
This year, drivers could use up to 7 degrees of hardness of smooth tires and in the future it will only be five or six. Each of them will be numbered, starting with "one", which will designate the toughest tire of the season for "five" or "six", which will be the most versatile tire.
"The mixes that we are developing for the next season already have a slightly bigger difference compared to this year," explained Pirelli's Mario Isola. "The flexible tire, which will now be numbered" three ", remains unchanged."
"Hard and average performance is slightly better [niż w sezonie2018]. Closer to a versatile mix because this year no one wanted to use hard tires, believing that they are too hard and that their performance is not enough. So we decided to bring the average mix closer to the soft mix, and the hard mix is closer to the average. "
The super-flexible tire, which was used most often this year alongside the soft tire, has been completely removed from the available tire range and has no equivalent in the new range. This will make the differences between the performances of the new "three" and "four" mixes greater.
"We had soft, super-soft and ultra-soft tires that were too close to each other," Isola said. "Now we do not have a super soft tire anymore."
The blends in the softest part of the range have been blended from a super soft tire: "The soft mix is completely new for next season, but has similar performance to the same tires this year, as we think they have been properly selected, but a little above the mechanical strength of the mix to reduce the grain effect, the tire will retain its performance longer. "
Pirelli and the teams do not have much time to choose new tires before the first race of the 2019 season. Pirelli must name the tires of the Australian Grand Prix before December 6, and the teams will have to choose the number of mixtures less than a week after their announcement.
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