Pirelli tyres for Canada, Europe & Britain

Pirelli have announced which compound tyres the teams will have for rounds seven, eight and nine of the 2012 Formula One World Championship.

As the season has progressed the talk about the tyres has escalated.

When Pirelli made their alterations for the new 2012 Formula One season, it is highly unlikely that anyone in the Italian company would believe that they would have caused an even bigger stir this season in comparison to last.

At the start of 2011 all the talk was about the degradation of the tyre and how 'poor' they were to what the Formula One teams had been used to in the past, but once the racing got under way, the negative criticism they received soon passed as the spectacle of Formula One took over, in part to Pirelli's innovations following a brief laid out by F1 bosses.

For 2012 Pirelli changed the design of their tyres with the new rubber said to be racier than the previous compounds used during the Italian manufactures first season in Formula One.

The new tyres had also been designed to be 'squarer' to improve grip and handling for the drivers.

Pirelli also shortened the gap to less than a second per lap between compounds, which depending on the difference between degradation would provide a variety of tyre strategies over the course of a race weekend.

Everything Pirelli set out to do in 2012 was achieved, however they have also created an unpredictability heading into each race weekend, with every team on the grid desperately trying to seek out the 'sweet spot' on the tyres to maximise the tyres ultimate performance over the course of a race weekend.

If the teams discover how to use the tyres to their optimum performance level, then they are likely to do well in the race itself.

That has led to five different winners, from five different teams winning the opening five races of this seasons championship and with Lotus looking good, no-one would bet against a sixth different team winning in Monaco when the teams take to the streets of Monaco with the [red marked] super-soft tyre making its debut alongside the soft [yellow marked] compound.

Then once Monaco is out of the way the teams will be looking towards the races in Canada, Valencia and Silverstone.

For Canada, the teams will once again use the [red marked] super-soft tyre alongside the soft [yellow marked] compound.

In Europe for the Grand Prix at the Valencian track the teams will use the medium [white marked] compound and soft [yellow] compound, a combination previously used at Australia, China and Bahrain.

For Silverstone, the teams will have a bigger step in compound choice, with the Hard and Soft compound combination previously used at Catalunya selected.