Pirelli expecting significant tyre wear at Monza

Motorsport director of Pirelli, Paul Hembery says he is expecting significant tyre wear at Monza.

For the first time since 2011, Pirelli will bring the medium and soft tyres to Monza, which are a step softer than their nominations for the 2012, 2013 and 2014 races, all of which involved teams doing mainly one-stop strategies.

“We have the medium and soft compounds, a step softer than our nomination last year, which should be well suited to Monza and the emphasis on speed that this circuit always places.” said Hembery in Pirelli’s pre-race Monza press release.

“We’re expecting a fair degree of wear and degradation. With the two compounds potentially quite closely matched in terms of pace, this opens up a few options.”

Hembery added the low downforce configuration at Monza means tyres go under more stress, hence why in recent years Pirelli opted for the medium and hard tyre compounds.

“The cars run low downforce at Monza and that actually increases the work for the tyres considerably under acceleration and braking, because with less force pushing down on top of the car, it’s the tyres that are providing all the mechanical grip.”

A detailed presentation will be made by Pirelli at Monza explaining what caused Sebastian Vettel’s lap 42 puncture at the Belgian Grand Prix

“We have finalised the investigation into Sebastian Vettel’s tyre at Spa. Detailed conclusions from the technical analysis will be presented at Monza.”