How has the Lusail track been tweaked in a bid to avoid last year’s tyres issues?

Formula One drivers will need to get used to unusually high tyre pressures at the Lusail International Circuit after the issues at last year’s Qatar Grand Prix.

After last weekend’s Las Vegas Grand Prix, Formula One is back to action this weekend, with Qatar staging the middle station of the last triple header of this the longest ever Formula 1 season.

Although both the Las Vegas and the Qatar F1 races are night races, the distance between the two locations is eye-catching: 13,000 kilometres as the crow flies and an eleven hour time difference separate Doha from Las Vegas.

The Qatar Grand Prix was first held in the coronavirus-affected 2021 F1 season, with a permanent circuit playing host to the F1 action. The Lusail International Circuit features medium-high speed corners where the tyres are subjected to energy levels comparable to those at Suzuka and Silverstone and so the hardest trio of compounds in the 2024 range will be used, with the aforementioned C3 as Soft, the C2 as Medium and the C1 as Hard.

This is the third edition of the Qatar Grand Prix, the two previous events having been held in 2021 and 2023. Last year the weekend was affected by a decision taken by the FIA, imposing a maximum of 18 on the number of laps that one set of tyres could complete in the race, which led to all the drivers making three pit stops.

The Race Director’s decision was deemed necessary after a notification from the Pirelli engineers. Following the usual analysis of the tyres returned to them by the teams after the first and second day of track activity, they pointed out the possibility of micro-lacerations in the sidewalls between the tread compound and the carcass cords, caused by impact generated from repeatedly driving over the kerbs at some corners.

Over the past few months, the FIA and Pirelli have worked together to prepare for this Grand Prix to ensure that what happened in 2023 will not be repeated. The pyramid-shaped kerbs have had their tips rounded off at seven of the track’s 16 corners: the first two after the start, turns 4 and 10 and the three from 12 to 14, the section that had most stressed the sides of the tyres.

Formula One’s sole tyre manufacturer Pirelli has confirmed that their engineers have also carried out extensive and lengthy tests on the dynamic test beds in Milan, using a sample of the new kerbs supplied by the FIA. Furthermore, the engineers also analysed tyres from tests carried out by some Formula 1 teams in recent weeks at the Lusail circuit, running pre-2024 cars.

Pirelli noted: “Even though the tyres were obviously not identical to those from the 2024 range, the acquired data has still been useful to confirm the results of simulations and the indications from the test bed. It should also be noted that the FIA has ensured that a gravel strip is added to the outside of some kerbs to dissuade drivers from overstepping the mark in order to go quicker.”