Pirelli will continue to supply control tyres to Formula 1 in this season. According to reports, the Italian brand brings around 1800 tyres to each grand prix in this season.
In May 2016, Pirelli had finally signed of on its F1 contract from 2-17-19. They have been confident of the deal going through and powered on with its plan for 2018, when bigger and wider tyres will be introduced.
In addition, the tyres are manufactured in Pirelli’s most advanced motorsport sites in Romania. During the production process, a barcode is assigned to each tire by the FIA. This barcode is the “passport” of the tires.
It is firmly integrated into the structure during vulcanization and can not be exchanged. The barcode contains all the information about each tire, ensuring its traceability throughout the race weekend thanks to Pirelli’s RTS (Racing Tire System) software, which allows you to read and update all the data.
For European events, the tires are transported to Pirelli’s logistic and distribution platform in Didcot, UK. Once there, a representative of the FIA receives a list of barcodes related to the tires that will be taken to the next Grand Prix. The FIA randomly assigns the barcodes, and therefore the tires, to each team individually.
Pirelli itself does not participate in this process, which means that it has no influence on the tires assigned to the teams, even though rigorous quality control ensures that all outgoing tires from the factory are totally identical.
The Italian tyre brand in 2016 had signed three years contract with F1 at least until 2019. (Source:www.autoblog.com)
Once on the circuit, the tires are awarded to the teams in the strictest respect of the list prepared beforehand by the FIA. The bar codes allow the FIA and Pirelli to ensure that the right teams use the correct tires according to regulations.
According to reports, Pirelli engineer is appointed for each team. He or she works exclusively with this team throughout the year, but the database on which each engineer works only gives him access to information about his team during the weekend.
It is thanks to this method that individual strategies are protected. The development database is managed by experienced Pirelli engineers who control all the information to help the research team responsible for shaping the next generation of tires.
In addition, Pirelli has developed a new integrated computer system to collect data during practice and races. The Racing Tire System (RTS) is unique in the world and unprecedented in Formula 1 with comprehensive features that keep the Pirelli engineers in constant contact with the cars, teams and staff of FOM.
