What tyres will the teams and drivers have for the 2025 Chinese Grand Prix?

The first Sprint weekend of the season is nearly upon us, as the teams and drivers get ready to compete in Shanghai at the Chinese Grand Prix. But which compounds have tyre supplier Pirelli provided for the three days of action?

The Italian company have chosen to go one step harder than they did for Australia last weekend, naming the C4 as the soft (marked red), the C3 as the medium (marked yellow) and the C2 as the hard (marked white).

The return of the F1 Sprint format means the teams will need to be very careful in managing their tyre allocations, with only 12 sets available for the whole weekend rather than the usual 13.

Under Sprint regulations, drivers will get two sets of the hard, four sets of the medium and six sets of soft, along with six sets of green intermediates and three sets of blue full wets.

“An important factor to consider this weekend will be the temperatures,” reads Pirelli’s weekend preview. “It’s the first time that Shanghai hosts the Grand Prix in March when average temperatures rarely exceed 18°C.

“Although in fact, the forecast for the weekend is to see them climb above 20°C as from Friday, reaching a high of 26°C on Saturday.

“While this is therefore considerably warmer than usual at this time, it is actually pretty similar to conditions seen last year, for example, when the race was held in the third week of April.

“There were three interruptions last year – one VSC (Virtual Safety Car) and two Safety Cars – which significantly influenced the outcome of the race, both in terms of the number of stops and the sequence in which the compounds were used.

“In the case of the former, three of the drivers who finished in the top 10 made just one stop, six pitted twice and one even three times. As for the latter, the majority of drivers opted to line up on the grid on the medium, with the C3 also completing the most stints (46%).

“However, when it came to the highest mileage, that went to the C2 (57%). The C4 also played its part, with four drivers choosing it for the start, while Fernando Alonso drove his longest stint on the softest tyre.”

For more information about Pirelli’s F1 tyres, visit pirelli.com.