Pirelli expects Melbourne tyre variety as new F1 rules make debut

The compounds available for the race around Melbourne's Albert Park were announced just before Christmas given the regulations now require a 14-week lead time prior to long-haul events.

Pirelli made the super-soft, soft and medium available to the teams, with an announcement from the Italian manufacturer due on Tuesday regarding the allocation for each team and driver.

Pirelli racing manager Mario Isola said: "It will be interesting to see if different teams have different choices, and inside the same team, if they have different choices for the two cars."

Asked whether Pirelli was already aware of the choices made, Isola added: "We have received the total number of tyres [for each compound] we need to produce from the FIA.

"Two weeks ago we then received the barcode allocation [for each team]. It was at this point we knew the choice for each team, which we will declare on Tuesday."

Isola anticipates teams will try out different strategies over the first few races until they obtain a better understanding of how each tyre works.

"At the beginning of the championship I think there will be some variation because they had to choose the compounds quite in advance, before the winter test, for the first four races," said Isola.

"So I expect some differences. Maybe these differences will be in free practice and then they will converge to a similar strategy for the race.

"That's because they have very powerful tools of simulation and they are able to find the best strategy, also with the new regulations.

"But hopefully we'll have different strategies, probably more pitstops compared to last year because we've added one softer compound.

"So if we have teams planning to have a more aggressive strategy, we should have a higher number of pitstops."