General
Portimao gets a new layer of asphalt for Formula 1 Grand Prix
- GPblog.com
The circuit of Portimao will soon be asphalted again. Pirelli says on Thursday morning. The tyre supplier of Formula 1 also expects that the tyres will have a hard time on the Portuguese circuit when the pinnacle of motorsport will be there in October.
"Of all the new tracks, Portimao is the toughest for us," Mario Isola told Motorsport.com. Pirelli's top man expects a high degradation of the tyres on the southern European circuit. "The layout is tough and the asphalt will cause a high degradation. They are going to asphalt the circuit again at the end of this month. The goal is that the asphalt should be roughly the same as what we have now, but we know from the past that it will always make a difference".
Last weekend a total of three drivers with Valtteri Bottas, Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz had a flat tyre. In Portugal the teams will also face a challenge, Isola suspects: "The new asphalt will provide much more grip. The wear and tear will then be lower. It means that the tread can become very hot, it's something that teams have to deal with".
Pirelli will probably take the hardest compounds it has at its disposal in order to avoid crashed tyres as much as possible.