Mario Isola: The Hard Squad played a leading role in the race

The head of the Pirelli racing division, Mario Isola, summed up the Australian Grand Prix and assessed the effectiveness of the C2, C3 and C4 rubber compounds that the tire workers brought to the Albert Park track.

Mario Isola: “We saw an eventful Australian Grand Prix with three red flags, a real and a virtual safety car. All of these developments had a direct impact on strategies, while all rubber compounds performed as expected, with Hard tires playing a leading role.

When the safety car entered the track for the first time after Alex Albon’s departure on lap seven, some riders who had started on Medium switched to Hard. But as soon as the red flags appeared, others followed suit.

Although the teams had little information about tire performance over long distances, due to the fact that only a few riders completed more than ten laps in a row during training, the C2 tires proved to be very stable in terms of degradation and did not differ much in speed. from other compounds.

The fact that we saw all three compounds on the grid confirms the correctness of the decision to bring to Melbourne this year the C4 compound, which proved to be suitable for use in the race and became the main one in the final laps thanks to two red flags.

Soft and Medium showed good speed, albeit on relatively short stretches, but in warmer temperatures than on previous days and on a more rubberized track.