Daniel Ricciardo thinks Pirelli should consider bringing qualifying-only tyres to Formula One races in order to spice up each grand prix by opening up strategy options for teams.
The Spanish Grand Prix featured a strange quirk in that the softest tyre the Italian company had in its range for the weekend, the super-soft tyre, was not the ideal compound for qualifying. That had the knock-on effect of limiting strategy options for the race, where all but two of the grid's 20 drivers avoided using the super-soft tyre completely and swapped between the soft and medium at the pit stop window.
Pirelli will debut its softest tyre, the hyper-soft, which is marked by a pink sidewall, at the Monaco Grand Prix. Ricciardo thinks Pirelli should consider making it a regular fixture of grand prix weekends.
"I don't know why we can't have the hyper-soft at every race," he said. "Or at least we qualify on it and maybe figure it out after that. But at least we've got, like, a qualifying tyre and then bigger differences in the race to create a bit more opportunity.
"For the top six it was already obvious from Friday [in Barcelona] we were going to qualify on the soft and try to do a one-stop with the medium. That's no secret. I think that's what it is -- just trying to create more options, more surprises, because it's a bit predictable for now."
Ricciardo's victory in China came after he used all three available compounds during the race. For that event, Pirelli effectively skipped one tyre in its range, choosing the medium and soft, but then missing the super-soft and selecting the ultra-soft tyre as the final option for the weekend.
Pirelli's F1 chief Mario Isola is open to the possibility of making this a more regular tyre selection policy.
"I had a chat with the drivers and it was quite interesting," Isola said. "They had a lot of ideas for the future.
"An interesting proposal, because they were happy with the tyre choice in China, and sometimes the difference between soft and medium is less than one second, was to consider jumping levels. Say hard, soft, ultra-soft.
"We can make a simulation of this to understand the possible effects. We have six compounds in the range so we have the flexibility to jump a level as we did in China.
"But it's possible in these conditions that you have the hyper-soft as a qualifying tyre, and under the current regulations they are obliged to use it in the race. It's not easy. You have to consider all the possibilities."