As the first Grand Prix of the season in Italy and the United States approaches, Pirelli has announced its tire choices for the first two race weekends in May. The C6 compound – the softest of 2025 – will also make its debut.
With the Suzuka weekend now behind us, Formula 1 teams are preparing for the fourth round of the season at the Sakhir circuit in Bahrain, set for this weekend. In the meantime, Pirelli has revealed its compound selections for the Miami and Imola Grands Prix, which will be the sixth and seventh rounds of the 75th season of the premier motorsport category.
Specifically, the Milan-based tire supplier has announced a softer compound trio for the weekend at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, where the C6 – the softest compound in the 2025 range – will make its debut. It will be used alongside the C5 as the Medium and the C4 as the Hard. For the first U.S.-based race weekend of the season, Pirelli has chosen the C3 as Hard, C4 as Medium, and C5 as Soft — a selection previously seen in Melbourne and one that will also be used in Jeddah next week.
“When we began planning tire production and shipment for the early races, we aimed to test all compounds from the new range during the initial part of the season, which includes circuits with very different characteristics. This will help us gather as much useful data as possible to inform our selections for the second half of the year, ” explained Mario Isola, Pirelli’s Head of Motorsport. He also noted that for the current season, the various compounds have been organized more efficiently in terms of performance differences and seem to suffer less degradation, thus creating the right conditions for alternative and competitive strategies.
Beyond the purely technical motivations for these decisions, Isola went on to highlight the need to balance drivers’ satisfaction with improved on-track performance and the shared goal of everyone involved in the sport: “to create the conditions for unpredictable and spectacular races. Tires and their behavior are a key part of the equation, and as a Formula 1 partner, we want to be proactive.”
Photo: Scuderia Ferrari HP, Pirelli.