Share this article on LinkedIn Email

Pirelli will give a new compound soft tyre its racing debut in Brazil after a successful trial in Nurburgring free practice and last week's young driver test in Abu Dhabi.

Teams will also try an experimental new hard tyre in Friday practice.

The tyre firm's motorsport director Paul Hembery said Pirelli had been satisfied with the performance of the new soft compound so far and was now keen to see how it performed in race conditions.

"Preparations for the 2012 season are well underway, so it will be really interesting to hear the thoughts of the drivers about the new hard and soft tyres that we will be trying out in Brazil," he said.

"We've already collected plenty of information on the new soft tyre from the young driver test, so it will be useful to compare that to real race data."

He added that major changes to Pirelli's tyre selections were on the cards for 2012, when it plans to take a more aggressive approach, as revealed by AUTOSPORT.

"It's important not to get too distracted by the names of the tyres though: what we're calling a 'soft' for now could end up as a medium for next year, as that's what the testing process is all about," Hembery said.

"In general, the tyres are going to be less conservative next year as the second half of this season has shown how well the teams have understood our product, allowing us to make some reasonably aggressive choices such as supersoft and soft for Korea."