Formula 1 gets set to race in Europe for the first time in the 2022 season at Imola for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix and Pirelli have announced what tyres the teams will be allocated for the first Sprint weekend of the season.
Imola, alongside Monza, is a home race for Pirelli and it will be their 18-inch tyre’s first taste of a Formula 1 Sprint – and for this Pirelli have announced a similar set of tyre compounds to those allocated to the teams in Saudi Arabia.
This weekend will see the teams allocated 12 sets of tyres instead of the usual 13, with the drivers set to be able to call upon the C2 (hard tyre, x2 sets), C3 (medium tyre, x4 sets) and C4 (soft tyre, x6 sets). Along with that, the teams will also be given six sets of green intermediate tyres and three sets of blue full wet tyres.
“Imola is an old-school, challenging track, where overtaking can be tricky, also because the circuit is quite narrow in places,” said Pirelli’s Motorsport Director Mario Isola.
“So the strategy is likely to centre around avoiding traffic, and effectively the teams start from scratch here in terms of tyre knowledge – as the compounds are completely different this year, and last year’s race also began on the wet-weather tyres, before being interrupted by a lengthy red flag period.
“Generally speaking, Imola is a medium-severity track for the tyres, and it’s a venue that is used quite frequently. This means that we might see a little less track evolution than we’ve been accustomed to at other circuits as the track is well rubbered-in already: the first round of the Pirelli-equipped GT World Challenge took place at Imola last month, which gave us some useful data.
“These are just some of the factors that the teams will have to take into account when establishing the tyre strategy for the opening Sprint session of the year: another first for the 2022 season.”
Imola will also play host to both Formula 2 and the Formula 3 races and Pirelli have allocated yellow medium and purple supersoft tyres for the F2 races.
For the F3 races, the sole nominated compound is the yellow-walled medium tyre.