Soft Tyre Compound in F1: What It Is & When It’s Used

The soft compound is the fastest and grippiest of the three dry tyre options Pirelli brings to each Formula 1 race weekend, marked with a red band. It offers the most outright grip but wears out significantly faster than the medium or hard compounds. Soft tyres are most commonly used for short stints, attack phases, or in qualifying where maximum grip over a single lap is the priority. Teams rarely run softs for long race stints due to their high degradation rate.

Example: He’s taken fresh softs for the final stint — he’ll have devastating pace for the next eight laps but then it’ll be a real struggle.