Super Formula introduces soft tyre for whole season

SF has generally relied on a single medium compound, greatly reducing an important strategic variable for the drivers and the teams.

Often the tyres were durable enough to go the full-distance, with drivers sometimes electing not to change rubber unless a tyre stop was made mandatory.

A soft tyre has been trialed at several locations in recent years, most recently in Motegi and Autopolis in 2017, and led to significantly better racing, without diluting the art of overtaking.

“I think it made things interesting and gave the opportunity for a lot of drivers and teams to try different strategies and jump up dramatically,” 2011 champion Andre Lotterer told Motorsport.com at Suzuka last year.

“We saw [Felix] Rosenqvist at Autopolis do the full race on one tyre. So they are too hard.

“It was good that we had two options to play a bit because overtaking is so difficult that strategy is important.”

With the new compound receiving unanimous praise from teams and the drivers alike, the organisers have confirmed that it will be available across each race of the 2018 season.

The new soft tyre will be one level softer than the one raced twice last year, while no changes have been made to the medium compound.

Teams already got a chance to test the new soft rubber at Suzuka last month, with the pace difference to the medium tyre ranging between 0.5-1s.

The tyre lasted for about 20 laps before degrading completely, although the low temperatures meant that the figure was largely unrepresentative.