Pirelli's latest specification of the P Zero Silver hard tyre was scheduled to make its debut in free practice at Silverstone - before the famous British weather decided otherwise. Consequently, the new hard tyre will now be brought to Germany for the drivers to try out in free practice on Friday. They will have two sets of the new tyre on top of their usual allocation of 11 sets, with the P Zero White medium compound and P Zero Yellow soft nominated for Germany.

Hockenheim - which alternates with the Nurburgring to host the German Grand Prix - is one of just three new circuits for Pirelli this year, together with Bahrain and the United States.

The Italian tyre firm does have some experience of racing there through the GP3 Series, which it has supplied since 2010, but no P Zero Formula One tyre has ever yet turned a wheel at the track. However, computer simulations of the circuit and mathematical modelling techniques mean that Pirelli's engineers are well prepared for what they will face over the weekend.

Hockenheim - formerly one of the fastest circuits in the world - is now characterised by some long straights combined with a much slower and more technically complex stadium section.

This requires a very versatile set-up, and the tyres too have to cope with an extremely wide range of speeds and conditions. Getting good traction out of all the slow to medium speed corners is key to a quick lap, and the tyres play a vital role in this. There are also a number of heavy braking areas, with the tyres having to absorb up to 5g of deceleration forces.

Paul Hembery: "After a wet Silverstone, we hope to give the drivers the chance to run on the experimental hard compound tyre during free practice at Hockenheim. But the weather in Germany at this time of year can be almost as unpredictable as it is in England: when we were at Hockenheim for the GP3 Series two years ago we saw plenty of rain, although it's been very hot in the past too. The new hard tyre is not a big evolution, but it has a slightly wider working range, which should make it easier for the teams to get the tyres up to temperature and maintain them in the correct operating window. We're running them in Friday free practice only as with the championship so finely balanced, we feel that it would be unfair to suddenly alter one of the fundamental parameters that the teams have made a lot of effort to understand and get the most out of. But we enjoy a very productive dialogue with them, and we will always take into account the wishes of the majority. It's certainly going to be interesting hearing what they have to say about the new tyre, and seeing if their impressions match up to the conclusions that we have drawn from our private testing. Coming to a circuit that is new to us always holds a different challenge, as we don't have any of our own previous data to compare it with. But the progress that has been made with simulation is incredible: these days you can learn so much about how a tyre will behave on a circuit without even going there. These advanced modelling techniques illustrate just one example of how our Formula One involvement can help to improve our everyday road car product."

Technical notes:

Finding the right set-up that balances both tyre performance and durability is crucial in Hockenheim. If temperatures are high, the rears are especially prone to degradation because of the constant traction demands and relatively high levels of rear downforce.

At Turn 6, the cars decelerate from 200 mph to 40 mph in just 2.5 seconds, with most of the energy going through the front tyres that have to brake and turn in at the same time. The weight transfer of this heavy braking causes the rear of the car to feel loose, accentuating the natural bumpiness of the circuit.

The cars run medium to low downforce in order to get the best top speed on the straights: the aerodynamic set-up is not hugely different to Canada. But this can give a lack of grip in the slow and twisty sections. If the car slides too much, this increases tyre wear by creating more friction against the track surface.