F1 teams alerted over mid-season tyre change for 2025

A mid-season tyre change has been announced to all 10 Formula 1 teams ahead of the 2025 F1 season, an official Pirelli statement has revealed.

F1 is about to embark on the joint-longest season in the sport's history, with it kicking off later this month at the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.

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From there, F1 will visit 20 more countries in the space of nine months, in a 24-race championship battle that looks to be wide open heading into the season.

Now, teams have been alerted of a major change that will be enforced at the fifth race of the season, regarding the tyre choices that each outfit will have during the race weekend.

Saudi Arabian GP change

After Australia, F1 visits China, Japan and Bahrain before arriving in Saudi Arabia for round five at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit.

While the first four rounds of the season will have the same tyre choices as those races did in the 2024 season, the Saudi Arabian GP will see a softer selection of tyres for teams to choose from.

Pirelli have confirmed in a press release that the race weekend will see a choice between the C3 as the hard tyre, C4 as the medium and C5 as the soft option, a change from the 2024 Saudi Arabian GP.

Mario Isola, Pirelli's director of motorsport, said in an official statement: "Based on our experience from last year and with the information gathered during the development phase of the new compounds, we wanted to go in this direction, to give the teams and drivers a wider range of strategy options.

"In 2024, 18 of the 20 drivers had started on the medium, namely the C3 and an early neutralisation in the race pushed 14 of those to switch immediately to the C2, which was then the hard, keeping it all the way to the end.

"With a softer trio, we believe this can lead to a situation where there could be a mix between one or two-stop strategies."

The announcement follows a change from the FIA to the Monaco GP, introducing a mandatory minimum two-stop race following a lap one red flag in 2024 that caused all drivers to change their tyres and go to the end of the race, somewhat neutralising the intriguing strategical battle between the teams.

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