Tyre degradation looms as the critical challenge for teams at the Spanish Grand Prix, promising an unpredictable race strategy. Pirelli, recently confirmed as F1's sole tyre supplier through 2028, brought one step softer compounds to Barcelona this year – the C2, C3, and C4 – explicitly to encourage multiple pit stops. Friday practice revealed significant thermal decay across all tyre types, with surprisingly similar degradation levels between the soft, medium, and hard compounds.
Pirelli chief engineer Simone Berra noted teams largely avoided the C2 hard tyre in practice, despite its struggles with sliding and overheating, suggesting they were saving sets for Sunday. With degradation figures reaching up to three-tenths per lap, a two-stop strategy is the likely minimum, but a three-stop race is a strong possibility. This unexpected parity in degradation, combined with teams’ limited data on these tyres with current cars, ensures strategy will be paramount and could dictate the outcome in Spain.
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