The Latest Breaking News from Mario Isola

The Woking-based team has emerged as Red Bull’s closest challenger at Imola, with its pace suggesting that it had the potential to grab pole position.

The company not only has to hone its tyres for cars that each year generate more load and produce faster lap times, but it also has to prepare for and adapt to any upcoming rule changes.

The smaller rim size was under consideration largely as part of ongoing efforts by the FIA to reduce the overall weight of the 2026 cars.

The year also saw an ultimately aborted effort to create no-blanket slicks for 2024, the successful introduction of a full wet that did work without blankets, a new construction introduced at the British GP to deal with ever-increasing downforce, and an end-of-season request from the F1 Commission to tackle the…

Drivers have increasingly complained about needing to manage overheating from the Pirelli tyres, with the rubber prone to thermal degradation, which forces them to back off in search of cooler air.

To boost the relationship between F1 technology and road cars, tyre size grew from 26.4 inches (13-inch wheel rims) to 28.3 inches (18-inch rims) for the arrival of ground effect in 2022.

Thanks to a mid-November calendar slot, and the decision to hold the charge along the famous Strip at night, the air temperature will most likely drop well below 10 degrees Celsius for all track sessions.

After Pirelli designed new 23-inch tyres for the initial switch to ground-effects last season, subsequent aerodynamic development from teams has led to complaints about how easily the tyres now overheat from the altered airflow.

The Italian company has already decided that its other tyres will remain unchanged for next year, and the Mexican running is the only opportunity to prove the worth of the revised C4.