GP2 won't follow F1's low-degradation philosophy

F1 has pursued a decrease in tyre saving and management from this season onwards, tasking Pirelli with producing more durable rubber instead of the high-degradation compounds it had supplied in the past.

However, the Italian supplier, which also provides tyres for GP2 and GP3, confirms that the feeder series' promoter has made no such request.

"For this year, GP2 is staying on the same tyres – same size and same compound," Pirelli's motorsport manager Mario Isola told Motorsport.com.

"Talking to the promoter, he was very happy with the racing last year, so we decide to keep the same tyre."

Asked whether the decision on levels of tyre degradation rested with the series promoter or the teams, Isola said: "In GP2 and GP3, we have a lot of meetings with the promoter, who gives us the guidelines. He likes degradation and, in our last conversation with him, he wants to keep the same approach.

"He is not planning for more consistent tyres; he doesn't like this. In future it's possible to change [if the teams demand it], but I think it would be quite difficult."

GP3 tyre degradation hike

Isola said that Pirelli was looking to introduce a new tyre product in GP2 in 2018, coinciding with the arrival of the series' new car – whereas in GP3, the Italian manufacturer would be making significant changes for this year already.

"The request from the promoter was to have a tyre with higher degradation, but especially at the rear. He wants a tyre that is more difficult to drive, to give the young drivers a bigger challenge," Isola said.

"If you have more degradation at the rear, maybe you start with the balance you had [last year], but then the car is oversteering more and becomes more difficult to drive than a car with understeer."

The new tyres will be paired with the introduction of DRS to GP3 in 2017, which will be the series' second year with the Dallara GP3/16 machine.

The car had got off to a somewhat rocky start last season as early races were short on on-track action – but GP3 officials have been insistent that the quality of racing was much improved towards the end of the campaign, and that no changes needed to be made specifically to spice up the show.

Asked whether a push towards more degradation suggested Pirelli was too conservative with its tyre selections last year, Isola said: "The problem was we had low degradation, but on some occasions a high level of wear.

"So it was not possible to go one step softer because they wouldn't have finished the race. The choice was based on the wear rather than the degradation.

"This is why the promoter told me: 'The tyre is good, but it's too good! We want more degradation'. So we started to work on the rear construction to create more degradation, and looking at the result of the tests it's good, we achieved that."