Abu Dhabi: Purple tyres could mean purple patches at this weekend’s 2016 Formula 1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, as suppliers Pirelli and the teams themselves anticipate some of the highest speeds ever seen on the 5.554-kilometre Yas Marina Circuit.
For the first time, Abu Dhabi fans will see the cars shod with Pirelli’s purple-striped Ultrasoft tyres, the softest compound in the Italian supplier’s 2016 range of five dry-weather tyres. Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery says the new compound “should provide some extra speed on a circuit that forms a good all-round test for tyres”.
And that extra speed could see the drivers setting multiple lap times expressed in purple letters on the timing screens to signify they are the fastest seen in any particular session. According to Paddy Lowe, Technical Director of the Mercedes team likely to be leading the charge this weekend, “we could well see qualifying times faster than ever before at this circuit”.
At each race, all 22 drivers have three compounds to choose from: for Abu Dhabi they are the three softest compounds in their five-tyre range, the yellow-striped Soft, the red-striped Supersoft and the new purple Ultrasoft.
Among their 13 sets of tyres, each driver will be required to use at least one set of the Softs and the Supersofts in the 55-lap race. One set of the softest tyres, the Ultrasofts, must be used by the 10 drivers in Q3, the third and final segment of qualifying on Saturday.
Curiously, in this secretive sport, everyone knows in advance which combination of the 13 sets of tyres each driver has chosen over the weekend, because Pirelli publishes that information in advance. So, for example, the Mercedes drivers in contention for the world title have both chosen four Yellow, two Red and seven Purple; the two men most likely to challenge them, Red Bull duo Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo, have both gone 5-2-6, while the most aggressive choice is Force India driver Nico Hulkenberg’s 3-2-8.
Abu Dhabi brings into sharp focus the balancing act between out-and-out performance and durability, the equation drivers and their engineers must get right when it comes to tyres. While the circuit boasts the longest straight between Turns 7 and 8, it also has a sinuous final section where the corners come in rapid succession between Turns 11 and 21.
As Pat Symonds, Chief Technical Officer at Williams, has said, the Ultrasoft “could prove a difficult tyre to use as the numerous corners that make up sector three may well push this tyre above its ideal operating temperature”.
In essence, the three available compounds offer varying compromises between grip, speed and durability. Yellow will be the least ‘grippy’ but the longest-lasting, which is why it sits right in the middle of the Pirelli range. Red offers more grip but less wear, meaning it is better suited to short-race stints and quick bursts in qualifying; and Purple offers most grip but fastest wear.
The Ultrasofts will perform best but suffer more rapid degradation (or ‘deg’, as the drivers call it over the team radios). On the other hand, Pirelli say the relatively smooth Yas Marina Circuit makes for correspondingly low ‘deg’ levels, though the high number of corners puts a premium on traction as the drivers accelerate out of the turns.
If Paddy Lowe is right about the speeds in qualifying, the quickest pole-winning time we have seen to date is Sebastian Vettel’s 1:38.481, an average lap speed of 203.027km/h, in 2011 for Red Bull. But Lewis Hamilton went quicker in Q2, the second segment of qualifying, with a 1:38.434 in 2011 as well. As Lowe says: “We’re hoping for a spectacular finale under the magical setting of those Marina lights.”
