Pirelli is planning to colour code its various tyre compounds this season to help spectators understand the teams' strategy.

In 2007 the FIA ordered Bridgestone to differentiate between its 'hard' and 'soft' options at races and the Japanese manufacturer obliged by painting a white stripe in one of the grooves. When slicks returned in 2009 the soft Bridgestones featured a green circle on the sidewall, but it was not always obvious on TV pictures.

Stories from Italy suggest that Pirelli will go one step further and change the colour of the writing on the tyre wall for each compound. The super-soft will reportedly be red, the soft will be white, the medium blue and the hard yellow. Sidewall lettering on the full wet tyre will be yellow and on the intermediates red.

It has also emerged that - so no drivers or teams are favoured - the FIA will distribute Pirelli's tyres to the teams after randomly shuffling the code numbers at grands prix.