- Pirelli is monitoring F1 2026’s early one-stop trend after two Mercedes victories.
- Mario Isola outlines compound selection changes as the manufacturer’s primary response tool.
- Mandatory two-stop rules remain under discussion but carry significant strategic drawbacks.
Formula 1’s 2026 season has opened with back-to-back one-stop races, putting Pirelli on alert as it looks to protect strategic variety. After races in Australia and China followed the same pattern, Pirelli Motorsport boss Mario Isola said the tyre supplier is ready to intervene if needed.
George Russell won in Melbourne. His teammate Kimi Antonetti finished second. One stop was all it took. The same story played out in Shanghai a week later. Medium and hard compounds carried the leading drivers to the finish without a second visit to the pit lane.
The average stop count was 1.4 in Australia. In China, it fell to 1.3. That is down from 1.4 at the same race in 2025.
A new era, familiar strategic problems
The reasons behind the shift are structural. Pirelli built stronger rubber for 2026. The company dropped its softest compound, the C6, and narrowed the range to C1 through C5. The tyres also sit on lighter, narrower cars.
The cars themselves are the bigger factor. The regulated minimum weight dropped by 32 kilograms. Downforce fell sharply, too. Less load through the tyres in corners means the rubber lasts longer.
Drivers are also lifting and coasting more often. The 2026 power units split energy almost equally between combustion and electrical output. Preserving that battery charge means drivers push the tyres less hard.
The lap time numbers tell the story plainly. Pole position in China in 2025 was 1.423 seconds faster than the 2026 benchmark at the same circuit. Slower cars load the tyres less. Tyres that are loaded less last longer.
According to Autosport, Pirelli dropped the C6 deliberately. The compound did not offer a big enough performance gap over the C5 to justify its full development. The goal was to give teams enough variety to race on without enforcing mandatory stop numbers.
What Mario Isola is considering
Isola, who is set to leave Pirelli this summer after a long run leading its Formula 1 programme, addressed the situation in China. He set out a data-driven path forward.
The original target for the 2026 tyres was to reproduce the mix of one-stop and two-stop races seen in recent seasons. Three compounds were to be available for race use.
“So we were working around this concept to try to generate the same situation as last year, not knowing exactly which was the performance of the new cars and how the new cars were operating the tyres or using the tyres,” Isola told Autosport.
“There is a different footprint, there is a different torque, there are different elements. Now we have, and I believe that in any case we have not been far from ideal in Melbourne and here as well, so choices for the first races are still good choices.”
The main lever Pirelli holds is compound selection. Bahrain, for example, was first drafted with C1, C2 and C3. After reviewing pre-season test data, a shift to C2, C3 and C4, one step softer, looked possible.
“We will consider that in general,” Isola said. “So if in some circuits we need to go one step softer, there is the possibility to change the selection. We sent a draft selection to the teams, and they have an idea for all the season, but we can change the selection in agreement with the FIA, so there is still the possibility to move, a little bit, the selection on the hard side or most probably on the soft side.”
Isola pointed to 2017 as a reference point. That season, regulation changes widened the tyres by 25% to boost mechanical grip. The unintended result was higher durability.
Drivers won on a one-stop strategy in 13 of 20 races. Pirelli responded for 2018 with a wider compound range that included the hypersoft tyre. Isola stopped short of calling for anything similar this early in 2026, but the comparison shows Pirelli has been through this before.
Skip compounds as a short-term tool
Pirelli also tested a different method during the 2025 season. Non-consecutive compound selections, a deliberate gap between the hard and the medium, punish teams that target the longer, simpler strategy.
Isola explained the logic. A bigger gap between the hard and medium means a one-stop team runs on a slower tyre. Teams willing to pit twice can use the faster medium and soft. Simulations showed the two-stop was slightly quicker when this skip was applied.
Pirelli tried the method at Spa-Francorchamps and repeated it at Austin and Mexico City in 2025.
The British Grand Prix in early July is the first point in 2026 where Pirelli can make a meaningful change relative to last year. That race used C2, C3 and C4 compounds in 2025. Round nine of the 2026 season could be the first real test of a different approach.
The wider strategic debate
Isola acknowledged what drives teams toward one-stop races. A pit stop carries risk, a mechanical error, and rejoining in traffic. Teams do not optimise for spectacle. They optimise for points.
Mandatory two-stop rules have been discussed. Max Verstappen is among those who have raised the idea. Isola is cautious. Simulations suggest teams converge on the same strategy anyway when constraints go up.
One compound goes short, one has a defined window, one runs to the end. More rules, same outcome.
He floated a different version of a mandatory two-stop rule last year. Teams could stop twice but choose any compound combination, medium-medium-medium, for instance. He argued that it would produce more genuine variety than forcing compound changes.
For now, Pirelli is watching rather than acting. The data is coming in. The options remain available. The company can still move compound selections in partnership with the FIA if the opening two races point to a season-long pattern rather than a product of two specific circuits and their conditions.
