(Motorsport-Total.com) – In the 2026 Formula 1 season, Italian manufacturer Pirelli will supply the race tires. These are control tires: each team receives identical material from Pirelli. The available tire compounds vary depending on the venue.
Read more «Maintain development»: Toto Wolff praises progress of George Russell
The overview in this article shows which tire compounds are planned for the respective race weekends. Pirelli can choose from a pool of five different compounds – from C1 (very hard) via C2, C3, C4 to C5 (very soft).
Three compounds are nominated for use on each race weekend. They can be visually distinguished by their sidewall colors: The hardest compound (Hard) is marked with white, the medium compound (Medium) with yellow, and the softest compound (Soft) with red.
On a normal race weekend, each driver has two sets of the hard compound, three sets of mediums, and eight sets of soft tires available. For a Sprint weekend, it’s two sets of hard tires, four sets of mediums, and six sets of softs.
In the race itself, at least two different compounds must be used. A driver can, for example, start with Medium and then switch to Hard, or vice versa.
As a rule of thumb: The softest tire compound on a race weekend is the preferred choice for qualifying. This is because the softest compound theoretically allows for the best performance over a single lap.
Read more «Maintain development»: Toto Wolff praises progress of George Russell
Here, Formula 1 supplier Pirelli turns back the clock for the 2026 season: The C6 compound introduced in 2025 will no longer exist. Last year, this was a particularly soft tire whose performance was even better for a short time than the C5 compound. It was used in Imola, Monaco, Canada, and Azerbaijan.
Where there are different tires than last year
This brings us to the first change for 2026: Because the C6 tire no longer exists, the C5 is the softest compound in Montreal. And although Pirelli has made the softest possible choice, it’s a bit harder than last year: C3, C4, and C5 instead of C4, C5, and C6.
This can be seen in the graphic by the arrows, even if it seems strange at first that the arrow points left towards harder, even though it’s at the softest level. The same applies in Monaco, by the way.
The opposite happens in Barcelona: Pirelli nominated one degree softer tires. Instead of C1, C2, and C3, this year it’s C2, C3, and C4, i.e., the medium compounds.
For Silverstone, compounds C1 to C3 are set – one degree harder than 2025. For Spa, Pirelli closes the “gap”: in 2025, C1, C3, and C4 were used, in 2026 it’s C2 to C4.
Read more Millions Plus: How the FIA Achieved the Financial Turnaround in 2025