Pirelli Motorsport boss Paul Hembery says he believes the introduction of three tyre compounds per grand prix weekend was a success at the Australian Grand Prix after the new rules caused various strategy changes throughout the race.
The Australian Grand Prix was used to test the new method of offering each team three compounds to use during the race weekend instead of just the two they had available in previous seasons.
The availability of three different compounds enables the teams various options on strategy and the option to change their strategy mid-race far easier than when they were restricted to just two compounds.
Speaking to Autosport after the race, Hembery was delighted how much the three different compounds affected the outcome and excitement of the race.
“The three compounds worked particularly well if you look at the variety of strategies we saw compared to previous seasons.”
“At this race last season it was a one-stop for everybody, but we had one, two and three stops, and even within the two and three stops a variety of compounds were used by different teams.
“So it seems to have been a resounding success from that point of view.”
Hembery believes Australia was just the start of things to come claiming the next two races in Bahrain and China, in particular, could see further variations in strategy and exciting racing.
“The advantage of having the three compounds is teams can adapt to situations.”
“If you do have a poor qualifying or you find yourself in a situation in the race where you need to change strategy for whatever reason – a safety car, traffic – you do have more options open to you.
“So from that point of view it seems to be working very well. If it carries on like that then we would clearly all like to take it forward into 2017.”
“For now, looking ahead to the next couple of races, I feel Bahrain could throw up something interesting, and China could also be a very interesting race.”
