Pirelli expects Barcelona tyre degradation to drive two or three-stop strategies

Pirelli takes centre stage in Barcelona

The Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix has already become a significant weekend for Pirelli, with the launch of a book marking its 500 Formula 1 races and confirmation that the Italian company will remain the sport’s sole tyre supplier until 2028. That wider milestone, covered in our report on Pirelli’s F1 tyre supplier extension, now sits alongside a very immediate sporting storyline: tyres could define Sunday’s race.

Softer compounds bring strategy back into play

Pirelli has gone one step softer than last year, bringing the C2, C3 and C4 compounds into play. The intention is clear: encourage use of the hard tyre and promote multiple stops. Early evidence suggests that objective is being met, with Friday practice pointing towards a likely two-stop race and the possibility of three stops.

Only Max Verstappen, Esteban Ocon and Ollie Bearman sampled the C2 on Friday, with the rest preserving both sets for Sunday. Pirelli chief engineer Simone Berra admitted that choice was unexpected.

“Personally I was a bit surprised, because the teams decided to use mainly the soft and medium compounds rather than the hard,” Berra said. “We expected the hard to suffer a little bit more with sliding, with surface temperature, with overheating, so we didn't think that the hard was a good race compound.”

Degradation becomes the decisive factor

Pirelli’s key finding was that degradation across all three compounds appeared broadly similar. Berra noted that the hard tyre struggled with sliding, while the C3 and C4 offered more consistent grip and better bite, yet the final degradation picture was not dramatically different.

That leaves no obvious preferred race tyre. Instead, the decisive issue is thermal decay, with both front and rear axles suffering in Friday’s 50-52C track temperatures. Berra described degradation figures of up to two or three tenths as significant, driven by the circuit’s roughness, layout energy and heat.

“We do expect a situation where two stops are most likely,” he said. “Possibly it could be also a three-stop race – who knows?”

The uncertainty is sharpened by the fact that teams are still learning how these 2026 cars interact with the latest tyres. Lift-and-coast and power management may become tools for tyre control, but Sunday could still reward those willing to trigger early stops and force rivals into uncomfortable decisions.