Tyre choices for 2019 softer than previous seasons

This season has been another year full of learning for Pirelli, with several teams complaining about how narrow the temperature 'window' is on the tyres for them to give maximum grip. Haas seem to have the most problems with this, with their race pace often suffering massively as their drivers fail to get the rubber warmed up, especially after pitstops.

Pirelli have vowed to make it easier for teams in 2020 to get the tyres into the right window as they finished their final in-season tests in Barcelona just over a week ago. It'll be interesting to see how the Italians approach next season; will the tyres provide more grip but have more degradation, or the other way around? 

Comparing notes of this season and last season, the compounds team bring to Grand Prix weekends have clearly become softer. The medium compound from last season, which is comparable to this season's C1-tyre, the hardest of the tyre range, was brought on nine occasions last season. Just five times this season, with the sixth time coming in Brazil. The 'hard' compound from 2018 was only used once and is harder than any tyre in the current range.

The switch in the naming of the compounds, which is now C1 up until C5 rather than 'hypersoft' up until 'hard', has had one more effect; where last season, a compound would regularly be 'skipped' in a range of tyres that would be brought to a weekend (ultrasofts, softs and mediums, skipping the supersofts), this has yet to happen in 2019.