Author: Barkha Roy
The Australian Grand Prix was absolute chaos. At one point, it seemed that the entire lower order was missing from the race, due to several restarts and accidents. Lando Norris believes that better tires should be used in Formula 1 and blamed the chaos on Pirelli tires.
Several red flags were displayed during the Grand Prix, which was dubbed a “complete mess” after the race was called off immediately after the restart. When the race restarted, the two Alpines collided after Carlos Sainz sent Fernando Alonso spinning at Turn 1.
Lando Norris (McLaren) and Oscar Piastri, his new teammate, were one of the few drivers to come out of the race with favorable results. Oscar finished the race in eighth place with 4 points, while Lando was sixth and scored 8 points. Both are now in a strong position to compete for the remainder of the 2023 season.
But Lando Norris drew attention to a problem that, if not corrected, could lead to more chaotic races, such as this year’s Australian Grand Prix. He determined that the Pirelli tires had “terrible” grip, due to the temperature of the tire, and argued that this was the cause of the drivers braking in the first corner.
Speaking to Motorsport at the post-race conference, he said: “We have a soft [pneu] with 65 degrees [Centígrados] and I can’t describe how little grip there is on the track. It’s not a bad temperature. But the tire doesn’t work and on this surface with this tire temperature, I can’t describe how bad the grip is.”
“That’s why you see everyone going straight into Turn 1 and braking… there’s literally no grip, so you have to brake so early, which causes chaos and incidents.”
Formula 1 tires come in three wheel compounds: Soft (C3), Medium (C2) and Hard (C1). Although tires are designed and coated to be soft, they wear out quickly. Hard tires take longer to wear out, while medium tires deteriorate more slowly than soft tires. As a result, the maximum speed decreases as the tire compounds advance (C1-C3).
Pirelli is offering six different tire compounds for the 2023 Formula 1 season. Last year’s hard tire option (C1) is now C0. A new ultra-soft C5 compound is also available this year. So the six compounds are C0, C1, C2, C3, C4 and C5.
The drivers receive 13 sets of dry tires, four sets of intermediate tires and three sets of rain tires in a typical weekend schedule. If the track is dry, each driver must use at least two different smooth compounds during the race.