The tight and twisty confines of the Principality are ideal territory for Pirelli’s P Zero Red supersoft tire, which makes its debut in Monaco. For the first time, by extension, it is also twinned with the P Zero Yellow soft tire – which becomes the ‘prime’ nomination after five grands prix as the ‘option’.
The P Zero Red supersoft is one of the most extreme tires in Pirelli’s range. While not quite a qualifying tire, it still provides the ultimate performance offered by any of the P Zero line-up. One of its characteristics is the remarkably short warm-up time, meaning that all the performance is available right from the beginning, but its extremely soft compound consistency means that it has an anticipated range of fewer than 10 laps: even less at the beginning of a race when the cars are full of approximately 200 liters of fuel.
With the Monaco street circuit characterized by few overtaking opportunities, qualifying is of crucial importance. However, with very little run-off, incidents and interruptions are common. Weather conditions can also vary, making Monaco one of the most unpredictable and exciting events of the year. In the past there have been a number of surprise winners, and the combination of tires nominated by Pirelli this year give teams scope to improve their prospects through some creative strategies, as has already seen at the previous round in Barcelona.
