» Tyre concerns trigger reallocation for Bahrain

Pirelli has made a late change to its tyre allocation for this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix amid concerns over high tyre degradation at the desert circuit.

At last weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix, no driver managed to complete more than seven laps on the Soft-compound rubber, and with the same compound originally on offer this weekend, the Italian tyre maker has elected to replace it with the Medium tyre. This will be used in conjunction with the Hard-compound tyre this weekend.

“Bahrain is one of the most demanding tracks for the tyres, mostly because of the high ambient and track temperatures,” Pirelli’s motorsport director, Paul Hembery said.

“We expect about three stops per car, although we’ll have to wait to get some running on Friday before we can look at the data and make a more accurate prediction.

“One of the main challenges of racing in Bahrain is that the track evolution is very hard to predict, depending on how much sand is blown onto the circuit. From what we saw last year though, there will be plenty of scope for different race strategies, which can even allow drivers who have not qualified as well as they hoped to recover.”