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Pirelli makes changes to hard compound tyre

Pirelli has made changes to the hard compound after consultation with the teams © Sutton Images

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Pirelli has made changes to its hard compound tyre ahead of the European season to bring it closer to the 2012-spec hard tyre.

The hard compound has been used twice this year but has a high-temperature working range that suited Malaysia and Bahrain but may not be suitable for the cooler temperatures in Europe. The hard and the medium compounds will be used at the next round in Spain and Pirelli's director of motorsport Paul Hembery said the tweak to the hard compound came after consultation with the teams.

"After evaluating tyre performance over the balance of the first four races, we took the decision - in consultation with all of the teams - to change the hard compound from Spain onwards, as we did in Barcelona two years ago when we also introduced a new hard tyre for the rest of the season," he said. "This latest version of the hard compound is much closer to the 2012 tyre, with the aim of giving the teams more opportunity to run a wider range of strategies in combination with the other compounds, which remain unchanged."

Speaking in Bahrain, Hembery outlined the issues with the original 2013-spec hard compound: "The hard is working here because it has a high-temperature working range, unfortunately rather too high. It needs this sort of temperature to work as it was meant to. So we might have to move the working range of the compounds down a bit, particularly when we get to Europe and it's cooler. It's all minor stuff but not maybe in the direction that some [teams] would like."

Despite the tweaked hard compound, Pirelli has resisted pressure from Red Bull to make further changes to its compound range after the championship leaders said the tyres were "too on an edge". In Bahrain Hembery said only one team - Red Bull - had lobbied for changes to the compounds while eight had asked for the rubber to remain the same.

Pirelli has also announced that it will bring its two softest compounds - the super-soft and soft - to the Monaco Grand Prix and will use the super-softs and mediums at the Canadian Grand Prix.