The first brand-new entry is the P Zero Orange superhard, the hardest compound of the range that will maintain the orange colour that for many years has symbolised the most durable compound of them all. The new superhard enters the family as something of an ‘insurance policy’, given that all the other compounds have gone a lot softer, as requested by teams and drivers and developed by Pirelli throughout more than 20 days of testing in 2017. Slotting in below the new superhard is the hard compound, which next year takes on a new ice blue colour.
The P Zero White medium, P Zero Yellow soft, P Zero Red supersoft and P Zero Purple ultrasoft remain unchanged in colour although as mentioned before they will be a lot softer than 2017, underlining the trend towards a softer range across the board.
Completing the 2018 rainbow is another brand-new tyre: the P Zero Pink hypersoft, which was christened by more than 30,000 followers who took part in a poll via three of Pirelli’s social media channels (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram). This is actually the second time that Pirelli has involved its social followers in naming a tyre. The first time at the end of 2015 was to name the ultrasoft tyre, where purple was chosen the winner.
A number of Formula 1 drivers, including newly-crowned world champion Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel, Kimi Raikkonen and Max Verstappen, as well as other F1 personalities, took part in the social launch after the Brazilian Grand Prix through a series of short videos in which they asked their followers to take part in the Pirelli poll. From more than 156,000 answers, here are just a few that distinguished themselves through their creativity or global reach.
