Berra: New asphalt provides high grip

      After the first day of work on the Shanghai circuit, Pirelli tire specialists noted that the updated asphalt surface provides a very high level of grip, and the lap results are noticeably higher than they were last year.

      At the same time, Lewis Hamilton won qualifying in a Ferrari, even surpassing Sebastian Vettel's pole time, which he showed in China in 2018.

      Simone Berra, Pirelli Motorsport Chief Engineer: "It was very interesting for us to see how the tyres would behave on the completely renovated track surface.

      We had some information before we arrived in Shanghai, and then, this week, we took our measurements and noticed that the degree of surface abrasiveness was significantly lower than it was a year ago. The asphalt is now much smoother, and there are fewer bumps that distinguished this track in the past.

      Based on what we saw today, we can say that the new surface provides a surprisingly high level of grip. We have rarely witnessed such a significant improvement as today.

       results on the lap – considering that we are talking about cars of the same generation.

      Hamilton's result is more than five seconds higher than the best time shown in last year's qualifying for the sprint. It's even better than Vettel's pole time seven years ago, when the cars were completely different.

      As the condition of the track continues to improve, it is possible that the results will continue to increase tomorrow. Moreover, it should be borne in mind that since there are fewer bumps, teams can adjust cars to lower ground clearance, and this is another factor influencing the increase in speeds.

      The training session lasted only 60 minutes, and the teams did not have the opportunity to work on long series of laps with full fuel tanks, but this is typical for sprint weekends. We noticed the intense granulation of the left front tire, which led to a decrease in the pace, but the degree of wear of the rubber did not increase that much.

      In terms of lap results, the level of degradation of the Medium and Soft rubber compounds is quite high (a drop of two to three tenths was recorded), and this is one of the reasons why all teams decided to save both sets of Hard for now – they almost certainly use them on Sunday.

      Tomorrow's sprint will be a great opportunity for everyone to do a really long series of laps, which will give them a clearer idea of possible tactics for Sunday's race, even if the fuel load on Saturday will be lower.

      In theory, the most likely choice of rubber for the sprint will be Medium tires. However, last year George Russell showed a good result on soft tires in a Mercedes, but it is unlikely that anyone will try to repeat this tomorrow."