The controversy F1 fans could end up grateful for

The announcement of an expanded range of seven dry Formula 1 tyre compounds for 2018 has caused some uproar among fans, with many suggesting the system is now too complicated, especially with some extra colours added to the mix.

Pirelli unveiled seven compounds in a "rainbow" range. One of the new compounds will be the orange super-hard and will work as an insurance policy in case the other tyre choices prove to be too soft, while at the other end of the scale, the pink hyper-soft tyre - named by a social media poll - will be the softest compound.

It's worth remembering the challenge that Pirelli faced a year ago. The 2017 rules prescribed wider tyres, and on top of that came increased downforce levels and hence cornering speeds, which translated into greater loads being transferred to the tyres.

But Pirelli couldn't test its new products on definitive 2017 cars, because they didn't exist. It relied instead on 'mule' cars, older chassis modified to replicate higher downforce levels, and on simulations provided by the teams, who had to give their best estimates on what the true levels of downforce would be, and more importantly, how they would develop during 2017.

That is a challenge that Pirelli faces going into every season. It must produce tyres that work well in Australia, but can also deal with the inevitable performance increase that leads to higher downforce levels and hence loads by the final race in Abu Dhabi.

"We have every year, irrespective of a change of regulations or not, a development," says Pirelli F1 boss Mario Isola. "So when we design a product for the following year we have always to consider the end of the year, not the beginning.

"The big step was 2016 to '17, because of the change of regulations. Lap time improvement was quite big, it was in line with the simulations. It was a bit less that what they were expecting at the end of the year, but it was not too different."

Pirelli certainly contributed to, and successfully dealt with, some massively increased cornering speeds - lateral load on a single wheel increased from 1100 kilograms to 1500kg in 12 months.

However, there's little doubt that Pirelli erred on the side of caution for 2017, and that its range was not soft enough. The hard tyre was rejected after the Spanish GP, where it hardly ran on track, and it was not seen again. That left the company with just four tyres for the rest of the season, namely the medium, soft, super-soft and ultra-soft, and that provided less flexibility.

One key problem was at most races the harder of the three nominated tyres was pretty much surplus to requirements, so teams focussed on the two softer compounds - and that massively reduced strategic variety. On the odd occasion when all three tyres were realistic choices for Sunday we did see drivers trying different things, and that created a little extra entertainment.

In 2017 Pirelli has been running an intensive test programme, with all teams sharing out the days and running "blind" - in other words, not knowing exactly what Pirelli was giving them.

That information was used to first fix the 2018 construction, which had to be homologated by the FIA some months ago, and then the compounds, which have to be homologated by December 1, but in reality had to be fixed before the November 28-29 Abu Dhabi test.

Pirelli's goals for 2018 were to go softer, expand the range, create more flexibility, and ensure that at every race all three tyres are realistic race choices - meaning that there will be more strategic choices and, potentially, more pitstops.

"We know this year that we have been a bit conservative, so we want to move one step softer to increase the number of pitstops, because the ideal number we know is two pitstops per race per car," says Isola.

"The target is to have three compounds that are usable at each race. Not just the two softest, and one is a back-up. Because with three compounds we can create more action, we can create different strategies, real racing - because at the end of the day everybody is in the same condition.

"Teams have the opportunity to choose 10 out of the 13 sets available, so they can make their own strategy, they can design the car with a specific approach. If they want to be more aggressive and harder on the tyres they probably have to focus on harder tyres, if they are more gentle on tyres they probably have to focus on softer. But we give them the choice, and I think this is a big part of the show."

It's perhaps inevitable that tyre companies struggle to keep everyone happy all of the time, but the general idea is to please fans and improve racing

So Pirelli decided to expand its dry range from five to seven. But in effect it is just six. The 2017 hard, which as noted was abandoned last year, has become the '18 super-hard. It is unlikely ever to be used, but it's there just in case car development takes off to such an extent that Pirelli finds that it has been too bold this year.

"The super-hard is the same as this year's hard," Isola explains. "It's a back-up, honestly, because we want to keep the freedom to go harder if for any reason we underestimated the development of the cars. But there is no plan at the moment to use it, but we have it in the range. The plan is not to use it."

That leaves six compounds, the five names that we're used to and the brand new hyper-soft. As well as the old hard becoming the super-hard, the old medium is the new hard, and the old soft is the new medium. Those three tyres are essentially as used in 2017, but the other four are all new compounds.

The hyper-soft, which is two steps softer than the old ultra, will add a critical edge at races that suit the softest tyres.

"For sure we'll use it in Monaco, but it's difficult to say now, it's very important the test we have [in Abu Dhabi], to collect data numbers," says Isola. "Obviously, we already tested the hyper-soft during our development tests. It is quite a soft compound, and we had a huge degradation on a circuit that was not a proper circuit for the hyper-soft.

"So the hyper-soft is for street circuits, low severity circuits. If I had to choose, probably it will be the Red Bull Ring, Montreal, maybe Abu Dhabi as well. We will see after the test. Abu Dhabi is a good circuit to test the softer compounds."

As always, Pirelli has had to define tyres that will cope with predicted levels of downforce at both the start and end of 2018. Development is unlikely to be as dramatic as it was this year, the first season of the new rules, but it will still be significant.

"We've received simulations from the teams," confirms Isola. "It's expected that at the beginning of the season next year's cars will probably be one second quicker than the current cars, so you have a step. And during the season the average rate of development is between 1-1.5s per lap, to give you an idea of normal development.

"We have the simulation from the teams considering the increase of performance for next year. We have some deadlines where we receive updates on simulations, obviously teams are going closer and closer to the real performance. This was good information for us to design next year's tyres."

All the teams have played some role in developing the 2018 tyres, but since the running was blind they will only have gained limited knowledge about what direction was being taken.

In addition some teams finished their Pirelli running several months ago, long before the tyres had been refined to their final spec. Also, the nature of the track chosen determined whether that testing focused on the harder or softer tyres in the range.

Now Pirelli has definitive tyres the Abu Dhabi test is crucial, especially as it comes right after a race weekend and three days of running.

"The test is really important for us because it is the first time we have all 10 cars running after a race in a representative condition on a track where two days before we just had a race, so we have a reference," says Isola. "Teams are also allowed to test 2017 tyres, so if they want to make any comparison between 2017 and 2018, they can do that.

"The system we decided to have for this test is we are supplying 20 sets of tyres for each team. Twelve are defined by us, the same for all the teams, and eight are defined by the team. Nobody chose the super-hard, but all the others are available. We can assess degradation figures and delta lap times on at least five out of the seven compounds.

"So we give the freedom to test what they want. We are not going to provide the run plans."

History has shown that it's a good idea to involve your race drivers in this kind of testing as they have much to gain by getting a taste of the future tyres while their 2018 cars are still under development.

Another reason the Abu Dhabi test is so important is that following it teams will have just a couple of weeks to choose their tyre selections for the first race in Australia, and the next events in Bahrain and China as well.

For this year, because of the new regulations and the uncertainty over how the new wide tyres would perform on high downforce cars, the FIA agreed that for the first five races everyone would have the same tyre selection. So for Australia, China, Bahrain, Russia and Spain, Pirelli told the teams what their allocation would be, and only from Monaco onwards did the teams get a say.

That was a one-off, so for 2018 teams will be choosing their allocation from the first race. The regulations insist that for flyaway races that choice must be made 15 weeks before the GP concerned.

That means that by December 7 Pirelli must tell the teams and the FIA which three compounds will be in play in Melbourne, and by December 15 the teams will tell the FIA how many of each type they want to use that weekend (three of the 13 sets per car are defined by Pirelli, and teams select the remaining 10).

One complication is that if you count back 15 weeks from Bahrain and China you land in the middle of the Christmas holiday, and given that after a hard season not too many team engineers are likely to want to work all the way through December, Pirelli requested that the choices Bahrain and China will be added to the Australian deadline. The FIA has agreed to this.

The complicated process and effort gone into improving the racing begs the question: is the wave of criticism of justified? It's perhaps inevitable that tyre companies struggle to keep everyone happy all of the time, but the general idea is to please fans, not aggravate them, and only time will tell if that works out.

"The final target is to have a better show," says Isola. "Better for spectators, more emotion, more action on track, and we hope with these changes we have achieved the target."