What tyres will the teams and drivers have for the 2025 Japanese Grand Prix?

A triple header of races is about to begin as Formula 1 returns to action this weekend at the Japanese Grand Prix – but which compounds have tyre supplier Pirelli provided for the three days of action?

The Italian company have chosen their hardest trio of compounds to tackle the tough 18-corner Suzuka Circuit, meaning that the C1 makes its season debut as the hard (marked white) while the C2 acts as the medium (marked yellow) and the C3 as the soft (marked red).

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Drivers will get two sets of the hard tyre, three sets of the medium tyre and eight sets of the soft tyre, as well as the green intermediate tyre and the blue full wets, should they be required. An extra set of softs is reserved for those who reach Q3 in Qualifying, while all drivers must use at least two different slick compounds during the race, providing the track is dry.

Of the compounds in use this weekend, the C1 is the one to most closely resemble the 2024 version while the C2 and C3 have undergone changes, meaning that both of these are softer than last year.

Something that is also different for 2025 is that a large part of the Suzuka Circuit has been resurfaced from the exit of the last chicane to the end of the first sector, an important section of the track featuring a mixture of medium and high-speed corners.

“Pre-event simulations, carried out using data supplied by the teams, suggests that lap times will come down thanks to the combined effect of the additional grip from the new surface and the increase in performance from the 2025 cars, which is reckoned will be around the one and a half seconds mark,” reads Pirelli’s weekend preview.

“That figure will be checked right from Friday during the first two hours of track activity. Also based on data from the teams, the Pirelli engineers have slightly modified the required minimum start pressures across both axles, with the front coming down by a half psi from 25 to 24.5 and the rear increasing by the same amount from 23 to 23.5.”

It continues: “[In 2024] there was quite a difference in strategy choices, both in terms of the number of stops, with the two-stopper nevertheless proving the most popular, and the order in which the compounds were used.

“In the end, the C1 did the most laps (61% of the total) ahead of the medium (31%) and the soft only doing a short first or final stint, as its performance drop was quite significant.

“Worth noting that, starting on the medium and making only one change to hard, Charles Leclerc managed to make up four places from his grid position, to finish eighth.

“This year with what is on paper a big performance differential between the compounds, a one-stop could prove more complicated, although one must wait and see what influence the newly surfaced part of the track might have, as well as what the temperatures will be this weekend.”

For more information about Pirelli’s F1 tyres, visit pirelli.com.