Pirelli To Drop Hard Compound

Pirelli have confirmed that they are unlikely to use their hard compound tyre again this season.

The company make two compounds available for each race, which are usually announced a few weeks in advance of the race.

Pirelli produce four compounds of dry weather tyre (hard, medium, soft and super soft), but as the medium tyre has proved more durable than originally expected. Pirelli's boss Paul Hembrey confirmed that "the medium is proving sufficiently robust for the aggressive circuits we've still got to come. So don't think we'll be going the hard route."

Some critics have suggested that Italian Pirelli have made this decision to assist Maranello based Ferrari, who's car seems better suited to the softer compounds, something which Pirelli have fervently denied.

The removal of the hard tyres means that the coloured markings may now be more distinguishable, as the white marked tyres will be dropped, leaving silver, yellow and red.

For more on this story, visit www.autosport.com

Pirelli Compound Colours

New tyre supplier for 2011, Pirelli, have announced their colour coding system for the forthcoming season.

Whereas 2010's Bridgestone tyres featured a coloured ring around the tyre to denote the compound, Pirelli are instead going to change the colour of the 'Pirelli' and 'P Zero' logos.

The colour scheme will be as follows:
  Wet - Orange
  Intermediate - Light Blue
  Supersoft - Red
  Soft - Yellow
  Medium - White
  Hard - Silver

It will be interesting to see how easy it is to differentiate between yellow, white and silver whilst the wheel is rotating.

For more on this story, visit www.pirelli.com