Mario Isola says Pirelli wants to be flexible with yet-to-be homologated C6 compound after testing the tyre during F1 Mexico GP weekend.
Pirelli had a dedicated FP2 session during the F1 Mexico GP weekend for testing the C4, C5 and C6 compounds. Despite the red flag and few mishaps, they were able to run the test, both for short runs and performance-based long runs to collect as much data they need.
Although they do have positive data for C4, C5 and C6 compounds, but Pirelli chief Isola is still waiting for the post-season Abu Dhabi testing, especially for the C6 tyre. He wants to be flexible with the newest compound in 2025, which is solely to be used on street circuits.
For now, they are missing some data which he hopes they will get from the Abu Dhabi test to homologate and use in 2025 but as stated, they will be flexible in its use. “It’s never easy to run a tyre test in the middle of a race, and I have to thank all the teams for their availability,” said Isola. “We ran the test. It was positive. We got a lot of data.
“We have now defined a new C4, C5, and C6 for next year. Thanks to this test, the test is useful to validate new compounds. Obviously, we cannot test a different construction during this kind of test. I was a bit worried when I saw the red flag, obviously, because we didn’t have a lot of margin for running all the plan, but we did it.
“We shortened the long runs by a couple of laps to be sure that everyone was able to finish the test, and it worked quite well. I would like to wait for the Abu Dhabi post-season test. We still miss a few data on the C6 [especially]. It is important to underline that we have to homologate the compound if we want to use it, but we are not obliged to use it.
“So I prefer to have the flexibility to have a C6 in the range that is mainly for street circuit. I can imagine, for example, Las Vegas, just to give you a name that is not Monaco, because otherwise everybody is just mentioning Monaco. We have more and more street circuit in the calendar having the flexibility to have a C6 could be useful.
“And we are not obliged to select, let’s say, three consecutive compounds. So if we realise that, for example, the C6 could be good in some circuit, but close to the C5, we can also decide to nominate C3, C4, and C6 and skip one level.
“So this is giving us a bit more flexibility. We are going to discuss with the teams and with the FIA a draft allocation for next year, as we always do. And I’m happy to have this flexibility, honestly,” summed up Isola.
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