F1 drivers suffering from 'ballooned' issue affecting grands prix

Williams' Alex Albon has explained why F1 drivers are facing tyres which have "ballooned" in 2026 - and is having a direct effect on grands prix.

In the recent Singapore Grand Prix, Pirelli opted for the softest trio of tyres in its range, with the C5 acting as the red-marked soft, the C4 as the yellow medium, and the C3 as the white-walled hard.

However, during the Sprint weekend, no driver fitted the hard tyres, with it quickly becoming apparent during the grand prix that the soft tyres were not degrading and were capable of running nearly the whole race. 

Those who started on the mediums, including Albon and Lewis Hamilton, quickly abandoned the softs for the favoured race tyre in the soft, although Hamilton did eventually fall off the cliff due his 44 race laps on the already-used rubber.

In Azerbaijan two races prior, the soft tyres were also able to complete most of the race distance untroubled, with Pirelli having to raise rear tyre pressures for the 2026 season in order to ensure safety for the all new cars.

The tyres had to be created originally from scratch and on expected downforce levels from the cars, which has already been exceeded, with the new straight mode active aero also complicating matters further.

As the cars have been designed to run on straights at reduced downforce levels with the wings open, an SM mode failure could leave undue pressure and stress on the tyres and lead to a failure.

With this in mind, tyre pressures have been raised to see off that threat, but an unintended consequence means there are now tyres which are barely degrading as they are so full of air, as Albon explained.

"The soft tyre was very good this race, almost too good actually," Albon observed to media, including RacingNews365.

"I think it is not normal for the soft tyre to be able to do the amount of laps it was able to do, and be so consistent.

"It was a great tyre, and felt more like a hard tyre than a soft tyre.

"I think what we're seeing is that these rear tyre pressures have ballooned, and at the moment, it feels like the softer tyre has more grip, so you can control the surface temperature a bit better.

"The reason they've done this is because of the straight mode rules, but I'd rather we just get rid of it because if your straight mode is broken, you might as well stop the race anyway."

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Williams have 'best on the grid' suit

Albon, who retired from the Marina Bay race late on but was still classified 18th, did point out one area of success for Williams - its cooling suit, which has become a strange battleground for drivers, with some vehemently against running it. 

"I have to say, as a team, we've done a really good job with our cooling suit," he added.

"My cooling suit wasn't working for the first 10 laps, and I thought it was going to be a long race, and then it turned on, and it was very comfortable.

"I know a lot of drivers are against it, and some teams cannot make it work, but I think with all the issues we've had this year, our cooling suit is the best on the grid, so I am quite happy with it."