» Pirelli tyre compounds easier to spot

Tyre supplier Pirelli has taken another leaf out of Bridgestone’s book by adding a stripe to its soft-compound tyres in use for the Malaysian and Chinese Grands Prix. The softer ‘option’ tyres will have a gold stripe on their sidewall, in the hope that it will make them easier to identify for race fans and commentators.

The Italian tyre maker’s return race saw it mark its harder ‘prime’ tyres and softer ‘option’ tyres with differently-coloured Pirelli stencils on the tyres’ sidewalls, however, these proved difficult to see at high speeds.

“The gold stripes are on the Soft compound for this weekend, which is an interim solution for Sepang and Shanghai, where we will have the same compounds in use,” a Pirelli spokesperson has confirmed.

“From Turkey onwards we will have found a more permanent version of increasing the amount of colour on each compound to make it easier to distinguish.”

[Image via LAT]