Tyres, compounds and pit stops

Published Invalid Date · figures as of the 2026 Singapore Grand Prix, round 17.

Every car in the field uses the same make of tyre, and the rules about which tyres may be used are what create pit stops and strategy. Since 2011 the supplier has been Pirelli; since 2022 the tyres are 18 inches in diameter.

The compounds

Pirelli makes six dry compounds, C1 (hardest, slowest, longest-lasting) to C6 (softest, fastest, shortest-lived), and two for rain: the intermediate, for a damp track, and the full wet, for standing water. For each weekend Pirelli chooses three consecutive dry compounds and labels them hard (white), medium (yellow) and soft (red). The same label therefore means a different compound at different circuits: the soft at Monaco (C6 in 2026) is softer than the soft at Silverstone. Every race page on this site since 2019 shows which three compounds were used, and since 2023 shows which compound each driver used in each stint.

The two-compound rule

In a dry race every driver must use at least two different dry compounds, which forces at least one pit stop. A race run partly on wet-weather tyres cancels the rule. In a sprint there is no required stop.

Each driver has a fixed allocation of sets for the weekend; the number of each compound is set by the rules, and sets used in practice are handed back.

What a pit stop is

A stop changes all four tyres, in about two seconds of stationary time, performed by a crew of about twenty. Refuelling has been banned since 2010, so cars start with all the fuel they need and get lighter, and faster, through the race. Damage repair, a front-wing change for instance, and serving a time penalty also happen at a stop. The pit lane has a speed limit, usually 80 km/h, so a stop costs about 20 to 25 seconds in total depending on the circuit.

Strategy

The choice is between fewer stops on harder tyres and more stops on softer ones. A new tyre is faster for its first laps and then slows as it wears; the “undercut” is stopping before a rival to gain time on fresh rubber, the “overcut” is staying out when the rival’s new tyres take time to come in. A safety car makes a stop cheap, because the field slows and the time lost is smaller, which is why so many stops happen under yellow flags.

What the figures say

Across the 2025 season the average starter made 1.71 pit stops; in 2026 so far 1.84. In 2004, when refuelling stops were part of strategy, it was 2.36; in 2010, the first year without refuelling, 1.30.
At the 2026 Singapore Grand Prix 15 of 22 finishers stopped once; the winner ran 32 laps on the soft and 30 on the medium.
The record for most pit stops by one driver in a race is 7.

Each race page shows every driver’s stops and stints as bars, with the compound colours where known, and a short account of how the podium finishers’ strategies differed. Each circuit page shows how many stops the winners there have made since 1994.