Pirelli official tyre supplier for F1

DRY TYRES

The tyres for dry weather, known as slicks, have a tread that is devoid of grooves or channels and come in four versions: supersoft, soft, medium and hard.
The different compounds are designed to be well-suited to a wide range of circuits, depending on the type of asphalt, the number and severity of all the different corners and the speed of the straights.
This allows the teams to choose between a number of different strategies.

WET TYRES

The wet tyres, which are characterised by grooves in the tread pattern, come in two types: full wet tyres, for rain, and intermediates.
The wet tyres have deep grooves in them, with channels designed to expel water on full wet asphalt. Intermediates have more shallow grooves, for damp or slightly wet surfaces, as well as mixed conditions. The two tyres have in common the same compound.

DRY TYRES 

SUPERSOFT 

This is the softest tyre in the range and it is designed to provide peak performance and roadholding on slow and twisty circuits such as Monte Carlo and the Hungaroring.
Paul Hembery says: "This tyre gives lots of grip, over just a few laps. It's a special compound, which is quite distinct to the rest of the range. The exceptional amount of grip available is surprising, even though it is at its peak for only a limited number of laps."

SOFT 

This tyre is used on circuits with comparatively low levels of tyre degradation. Soft tyres do not tend to last for as long as hard tyres, so they are frequently used in qualifying and for short stints during a race.
Paul Hembery says: "I like this tyre a lot. It gets up to temperature quickly and it's very driveable. It delivers everything you would expect a soft tyre to do and it's durable as well, with good balance and grip."

MEDIUM 

Along with the hard compound, this will be one of the most commonly used tyres during Pirelli's debut season. It is a versatile tyre designed to work well in a wide range of conditions and is well suited to circuits with varying characteristics.
Paul Hembery says: "Reliability is the watchword here. As you would expect, this tyre takes a little longer to get up to temperature but once it has warmed up properly you are sure of good consistency and durability."

HARD 

This is also a frequent choice, as it is a tyre designed to provide the maximum endurance in the toughest conditions. A hard tyre takes longer to reach its peak operating temperature than a softer tyre, so is best suited to longer stints.
Paul Hembery says: "At the opposite end of the scale from the supersoft, this is a proper hard tyre. There are some quite significant differences between the steps now - which is what the teams and the governing body wanted. It's great news for the spectators."


WET 

INTERMEDIATE

These tyres have light grooves to disperse water, but this reduces the contact patch and leads to less grip on a dry track. When the rain is heavy, drivers will switch to wet tyres.
Paul Hembery says: "The strongest area of our wet tyres is the amount of water that they are capable of dispersing. The other notable characteristic is the short time that the soft compound takes to get up to operating temperature."

WET 

These tyres have deep grooves in them, similar to a road car tyre, and are designed to expel more than 60 litres of water per second at 300kph. A road car tyre can only displace about 10 litres of water per second, at much lower speeds.


http://www.pirelli.com/tyre/ww/en/f1/tyre-range