F1 News: Pirelli tests a Supersoft C6 tire to spice up the racing (Update)

(GMM) After one of the slowest and most processional grands prix in history, Pirelli has revealed it is working on a new softer tire compound for 2025.

“Was Monaco the most boring race ever?” reads the headline of a post-race analysis by the authoritative Auto Motor und Sport.

While the situation was worsened by the lap 1 red flag, meaning the drivers got their mandatory tire change out of the way, there have been suggestions that some of Pirelli’s tire compounds are no longer suitable for exciting racing.

Indeed, Pirelli’s F1 boss Mario Isola says the sport’s sole tire supplier has been working on a new softer ‘C6’ compound for 2025 for some time.

“The idea is to introduce a softer C6 compound as more city circuits appear on the calendar,” he confirmed.

“We will expand the range of soft tires and take measures to prevent overheating. The big challenge is finding the right balance between overheating and degradation.”

The new tire was tested by Ferrari and its race drivers at Paul Ricard last week.

“This was the first attempt,” Isola confirmed. “The proposal initially came from us, with the goal of moving away from a one-stop strategy to encourage two-stop strategies.”

Pirelli, the tire suppliers to Formula 1, are planning to introduce a new, supersoft compound as they bid to add excitement to racing by going softer.

A number of drivers have complained recently that the manufacturer’s existing range of five tires perform well, but at some tracks an even softer tire is needed.

Pirelli currently provides five compounds, from the hardest C1 to the softest C5 — a harder tire is slower but degrades less quickly.

The Milan-based manufacturer have conducted testing at Le Castellet’s Circuit Paul Ricard in France with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz ahead of a possible introduction.

“The idea is to introduce a new C6 compound, a softer one because in the calendar we have more and more street circuits, and we need softer compounds,” Mario Isola, Pirelli’s motorsport director, explained to The Times.

“We will move the range on the soft side, always trying to remove overheating. The real problem is to find the right trade-off between overheating and degradation.

“We tested one [C6] in Paul Ricard a couple of days ago. It’s the first attempt, but the idea is to go in this direction, probably to [have] six compounds next year. That was our idea, considering the calendar and considering where we go to race. The target is that we have to encourage a mix between one and two-stop strategy. We made the proposal to go a bit softer because the request [from teams] was to reduce overheating.

“The risk is that if you reduce the overheating they change [tires] less because obviously they can run more laps without high degradation. If we go in this direction, then we need to have softer compounds in the range.”