Pirelli’s Mario Isola: “We saw a great race, with the hard being used by the majority of drivers”

Following the Belgian Grand Prix, Pirelli’s Motorsport Director, Mario Isola has reflected on what he has described as a ‘great race’ around the Spa-Francorchamps circuit.

Today’s race saw all three tyre compounds used, with the majority of the grid opting for a mix of the hard and medium tyre compounds to execute their race strategy.

Max Verstappen and Oracle Red Bull Racing’s aggressive strategy of starting on the soft compound tyre allowed the championship leader to gain six places on the opening lap.

Isola noted that the high levels of tyre degradation experienced by the grid today was down to the high temperatures experienced across the Spa circuit.

“We saw a great race, with the hard being used by the majority of drivers. We will analyse all the data at our disposal but to hear on the radio that it was two-tenths of a second faster than expected was a fantastic achievement for us.

“Even though we knew that today’s conditions would be warmer than they were on Friday and Saturday, it was interesting to see the variety of strategies used, given the weather, track evolution, and a higher degree of degradation than expected. There were no problems with graining and the degradation was essentially thermal.

The Spa-Francorchamps Circuit has seen a number of modifications since the last time Formula One visited and Isola remarked that the tyre manufacturers experience at the recent Spa 24 Hours helped them forecast which tyre compounds to bring to Belgium this weekend.

“We had no issues with the latest track modifications here either, thanks to our experience at the recent Spa 24 Hours, which was held during the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend with Pirelli bringing 17,000 tyres. Congratulations to Red Bull for a one-two finish today with truly impressive race pace.

Prior to today’s race, Formula One announced that Spa will remain on the calendar next season and Isola was left delighted with today’s news.

“Spa is a unique track, so it was great to hear that it will remain on the Formula 1 calendar next year. This year was a huge success run in variable weather conditions throughout the weekend, with 360,000 spectators witnessing an excellent show full of overtaking moves, in which our tyres played a key role.”

Credit: Pirelli Motorsport