The behaviour of the tyres is influenced by a variety of parameters, which affect their performance and degradation. The car set-up, the aerodynamic balance, grip levels and driving style are all key factors that have an important effect on the tyres.

After an eventful qualifying session, the sun shone down on the Hockenheimring and settled down into reordering a grid that had been shuffled up by Saturday’s changing conditions. Fernando Alonso led away from pole and was barely troubled, except by Lewis Hamilton and he was only unlapping himself…

After all the rain for the first two days, Silverstone produced a dry race against most expectations. It probably meant a few too many wet set-ups but it did throw up one novelty – the ten Q3 runners having a free choice of starting tyre. It’s a situation that some believe should always happen. As it was, with all twenty-four drivers armed with a plenty of unused slick tyres it meant a bit more variety in tyre strategy than may have otherwise occurred, although two-stopping was pretty much standard practice…

Valencia, dull? 2012 begs to differ. Race winner, Fernando Alonso started from eleventh while nobody from the front two rows left with points in a topsy-turvy race that revolved around a mid-race safety car period and a series of retirements at the sharp end of the running order. The safety car was a big factor in the strategies too…

Mark Webber held on at the front of a gaggle of cars as one-stop strategies dominated proceedings with most setting out on Pirelli’s supersoft compound before switching to the soft. However, Sebastian Vettel, Paul di Resta and Jenson Button did things the opposite way around with mixed success – the first two climbing up the order while Button’s poor start left him staring at the back of a Caterham for most of the race…

Aerodynamics play a crucial role in the development of modern Formula One cars and the tyres form about 25-30% of the whole picture. For this reason, Pirelli gives all the teams replica tyres to use in their wind tunnels and for development…