In Bahrain, harder rubber compounds

 
At Pirelli, they decided to offer harder mixes of their tires for the race in Bahrain than originally planned. The softer blend of this year’s tires was first used in the China Grand Prix race last weekend, and racers there found it to wear out too quickly, as no one drove more than seven laps on them during the race.

Mercedes and Red Bull pressed Pirella a few weeks ago and even demanded the return of last year's mixtures, while the motorsport boss of the Italian tire manufacturer Paul Hembery said that the decision to change the mixture was made before the race for the Chinese Grand Prix. “When we determined the tire mixes for the race in Bahrain in December, we had not yet driven a single winter test, let alone a race. Our original choice for Bahrain was a soft and hard compound, but when we saw a new generation of our tires on a track similar to the one in Bahrain in Malaysia, we decided that a combination of medium hard and hard would be more suitable for this track. tires, ”explained Hembery, who, despite a more conservative choice of tires, expects a lot of crowds in the pits. “We expect every race car in the pits to stop three times. But for better predictions, we will have to wait until Friday's training, where we will get some data, which we can then study. "