Photo: Red Bull Content Pool
Pirelli is working on supplying a new specification of tyres to teams in the FIA Formula 3 championship next year.
There are three different slick tyre compounds (soft, medium and hard) in F3, but only one is used on any given race weekend since the races do not feature pitstops.
For 2023 a new specification medium tyre – which has yellow sidewall markings – was introduced but did not get nominated by Pirelli for use until round seven of nine at the Hungaroring. It was also used at Spa-Francorchamps. The soft, also a new compoud, was fitted to cars at low-downforce tracks such as Monza, and the hard at high-downforce venues like Silverstone.
The feature race at the Hungaroring was shortened due to tyre wear concerns, then both the sprint and feature race at Spa. Following that, Pirelli has focused on developing another new medium compound for use in 2024, along with a new hard tyre.
“Last year [in 2022], the medium compound was not degrading at the level expected and so we decided to develop a new compound with higher degradation, which we did,” explained Pirelli’s motorsport director Mario Isola on the F3 website.
“If I had to make a final judgement on the season, I would say that, in this case, we are now on the other side a bit too much and the tyre degrades a bit too much.
“As soon as we collected the data from the track, in this case, we realised the degradation was too high compared to the expected levels. We immediately made a test plan together with the promoter and the FIA in order to have the possibility to test a new compound on track before any introduction to the championship.
“We’re working on a new hard and new medium to fine-tune the compounds in order to have them in the proper positions in the range. We are fine tuning each compound and the plan is to have two new compounds next year.”
Pirelli is yet to announce which compound will be brought to the Macau Grand Prix, which awards the FIA F3 World Cup, later this month. Its supply deal for F3 runs to 2027, and in 2025 the championship will introduce a new car.
FIA F3’s 2023 tyre compounds
Bahrain Hard
Melbourne Hard
Imola (cancelled) Medium
Monaco Soft, Wet
Barcelona Hard, Wet
Red Bull Ring Soft, Wet
Silverstone Hard, Wet
Hungaroring Medium
Spa-Francorchamps Medium, Wet
Monza Soft