Charles Leclerc has diverged from George Russell's scathing take on Pirelli's narrower 2026 tyres, tested recently for F1's upcoming rules overhaul.
Max Verstappen dodged the topic with a grin, saying only, "They're round."
Russell, however, was blunt amid rumours Mercedes wants the slimmer design axed. "They're clearly worse overall, there's no doubt about that," he said.
Yet Leclerc, after having also sampled the lighter tyres, disagreed. "When you test new, smaller tyres, you expect a big difference," he told reporters. "But for me it felt fine—I didn't really notice a big difference. I was pleasantly surprised."
McLaren's Lando Norris echoed Leclerc's approval. "They worked well," he said, bolstering Pirelli's case.
Meanwhile, for 2025, Pirelli's F1 boss Mario Isola unveiled a new 'super soft' C6 compound to debut this year. "We want to be a bit more aggressive with the choice of compounds and offer the combination C4, C5 and C6 on several weekends," he told Auto Motor und Sport, moving beyond the prior softest C5.
"We want to bring the C6 to four or five races, not just Monaco," Isola continued. "Everyone always talks about Monaco, but we will not solve the problems in Monaco with the C6. The Formula 1 Commission has already decided that we will try two compulsory stops there."
He pinpointed the new tyre's rollout: "I think we will confirm the first use of the C6 for Imola. Then in Montreal. Then we'll see how it went. Both are representative tracks.
"If everything goes well, we'll probably see the C6 in Singapore and Las Vegas as well. Together with Monaco, that would be five races."
