F1 News
Pirelli left surprised in China, points out issues for teams this weekend
The Shanghai International Circuit got a new asphalt for the 2025 Formula One weekend, and even the competition's tyre manufacturer were surprised with the results achieved in Sprint Qualifying, Pirelli report.
Lewis Hamilton set the quickest time in SQ3 on the soft tyres with a 1:30.849, as the seven-time world champion finished marginally ahead of Max Verstappen's Red Bull. Pirelli themselves saw an outstanding level of improvement, given how grippy the new asphalt is.
"From what we saw today, we can say that the level of grip generated on this surface is really surprising: rarely have we witnessed such a significant improvement in times – with the same car technical regulations – as we did today. Hamilton’s time is over five seconds quicker than the best time from last year’s Sprint Qualifying, which becomes 4”873 when comparing it with the same compound," chief engineer Simone Berra began.
"It was even faster than Vettel’s pole lap from seven years ago when the cars were completely different, being 66 kilos. Given that the track is still evolving, it’s possible times will drop even more tomorrow! Furthermore, we must bear in mind that the lack of bumps meant the teams were able to lower the ride height of the cars, thus gaining even more performance."
Front left tyres to watch this weekend
So far, Berra saw one area where teams could have issues with the tyres during the rest of the weekend, even as the teams did not complete long runs in the first and only free practice on Friday. "We saw significant graining on the front left tyre, leading to degradation in terms of performance, but without it having much impact on wear. In terms of lap times, the degradation on the Medium and Soft seems quite high (between two and three tenths) which is one reason why all teams decided to keep both sets of Hards, almost certainly for Sunday afternoon."
Berra also sees a clear choice for the teams for the Sprint in Saturday's first session, where teams will be able to draw conclusions in terms of their long run pace. "On paper, the most likely choice for the short race is the Medium. Last year, Russell did reasonably well on the Soft, but it’s hard to see anyone attempting to do the same tomorrow," he concluded.
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