09/12/2015
NEWS STORY
2016 Sporting Regulations reveal that the teams must nominate their tyre choices for season opener by Friday.
Under the new regulations, teams must nominate their own two tyre compounds for each race from the three compounds nominated by Pirelli.
As in 2015 each driver will be allowed 13 sets of tyres for the weekend, of these Pirelli will nominate two mandatory race sets for each car and one set of the softer compound which will have to be kept for use in Q3 only, leaving the teams free to choose how to use the remaining ten sets.
Still with us?
However, the Sporting Regulations (pdf) released yesterday reveal that, according to Article 24.2.b: "No less than nine weeks before the start of each event held in Europe, and fifteen weeks before the start of each vvent held outside Europe, the FIA will provide all competitors with the following information relevant to the event in question.
i) Which tyre specifications will be made available by the supplier.
ii) The mandatory dry-weather race tyre specification(s) (up to two).
iii) The mandatory dry-weather Q3 tyre specification (which will always be the softest of the three specifications).
Competitors must then inform the FIA, no less than eight weeks before the start of each event held in Europe and fourteen weeks before the start of each event held outside Europe, which specifications of dry-weather tyres they wish to use for each of their drivers at the event. From the thirteen sets of dry-weather tyres available to each driver:
i) At least two sets must be of the mandatory race tyre specification(s). For the avoidance of doubt, if there are two mandatory race tyre specifications, one of each must be chosen.
ii) At least one set must be of the mandatory Q3 tyre specification.
iii) The remaining sets may be chosen from the available tyre specifications. 2016
Once the FIA has been provided with this information by all competitors the supplier will be informed. If a competitor fails to provide the above information before the deadline the FIA will allocate tyre specifications to any driver concerned as it deems appropriate.
With this Friday (11 December) marking 14 weeks before the opening session in Melbourne, this means teams must make their choices within the next 48 hours, even though the 2016 cars have weeks before they turn a wheel.