06/11/2017
NEWS STORY
For the penultimate round of the Formula 1 season, Pirelli brings the P Zero White medium, P Zero Yellow soft and P Zero Red supersoft tyres, marking the final appearance of the medium compound in 2017.
Interlagos is one of the shortest but most intense laps of the year, both in terms of physical demands and atmosphere. There's a succession of high-speed corners, constant changes in elevation, and a local climate that is capable of both intense heat and heavy rain. Once again, the tyre nomination for Brazil is softer than it has been in the past, with the medium now the hardest compound available.
The track was resurfaced relatively recently, which ironed out some of the famous Interlagos bumps.
The second-shortest lap of the season (after Monaco) means cars are not only nearly always turning, but also going off-line to overtake.
The track runs anti-clockwise, with the right-rear tyre doing the most work in Brazil.
The rapid series of corners and high-energy loads put quite high demands on tyres.
Tyres are also frequently subjected to combined lateral and longitudinal forces.
Unusually, Lewis Hamilton won last year in rainy conditions without making a racing pit stop, although he did take a fresh set of wets under a red flag.
In 2015, the top three stopped three times.
The supersoft comes to Brazil for the first time since Pirelli entered Formula 1.
Force India and Sauber completed a dedicated Pirelli tyre test for 2018 after the Mexican Grand Prix, with Alfonso Celis and Charles Leclerc driving respectively.
Mario Isola: "As we saw at the last round in Mexico as well, for Brazil we are again bringing a softer tyre nomination than last year - when the hard was selected - so this is likely to lead to some of the fastest-ever laps of Interlagos this weekend. With a short lap, plus plenty of pit stops and overtaking, as well as a passionate Brazilian crowd and the potential for extremes of weather, this is normally a frenetic race where the strategic timing of stops is very important to try and minimise the effects of traffic. While we've gone a step softer this year, no driver has selected more than one set of the mediums, which means that the weekend will be centred around the soft and supersoft compounds."