Pirelli has confirmed that they will be changing the choice of tyre compound ahead of this weekends European Grand Prix which is taking place on the streets of Valencia.
This news has come shortly after the original plan was to use the supersoft compound, but after taking into account the demands of the Valencia street circuit they have decided to swap them for the medium compound. I am hopeful that it will be an interesting race this weekend as the Valencia street circuit has many unique features that we haven't yet seen before on other street circuits. It's wide variety of corners, frequent changes of direction and stop-start nature will place heavy demand on the tyres and I believe it is for this reason that the tyres will be of use. There should be plenty of opportunities for strategy with a second per lap difference between the compounds, although overtaking in Valencia is notoriously difficult and the more conservative tyre selection could reduce the number of pit stops drivers will need to make throughout the race. Unlike Canada, the weather conditions are expected to be dry and warm over the race weekend so we can expect to see no 2.5 hour gaps, although this is Formula 1 where anything can happen and usually does!