Experimental new tyre for Malaysian practice

Formula One teams will get to test a new experimental tyre from Pirelli during first practice in Malaysia.

With no testing allowed in Formula One during the season, Pirelli were given approval to bring experimental new tyres to Friday practice sessions to help them develop their tyres throughout the season.

For Sepang Pirelli will be bringing an experimental version of their hard compound for teams and drivers to test.

“We never believe in standing still at Pirelli, which is why the teams will have two extra sets of slick tyres available to them during Friday's free practice sessions for evaluation purposes,” Pirelli's motorsport director Paul Hembery told formula1.com.

“With testing not allowed during the season, this gives us a valuable opportunity to gather more data and feedback, while it also gives the teams an interesting taste of what could be coming in the future.'

The Pirelli tyres made a better than expected debut in Australia, with predictions of teams needing four or five pit-stops to complete the race completely unfounded.

Most drivers made two or three stops to complete the race, while to the surprise of everyone, Sauber's Sergio Perez completed the race with just one pit stop, making both the Pirelli soft and hard tyres survive for the whole 58 laps, however their effort went in vein as they were later disqualified for an illegal rear wing.

For Malaysia, Pirelli have again nominated their hard and soft compounds as the prime and option tyre for Sepang. But do not expect the tyres to behave exactly as they did in Australia.

Malaysia will be a lot hotter, which could affect the tyres wear rate.

With increased degradation expect three or four stops to complete the race this time around.