Sebastian Vettel

Red Bull Racing

“This year we start the season in Melbourne with the benefit of a year of working with Pirelli tyres.

“For 2012 Pirelli have developed new tyres, with softer compounds and improved warm-up. After a lot of winter testing on cold tracks in Spain we will face new challenges in much warmer conditions in Albert Park.

“The weekend always starts with the track being quite dirty and conditions change and improve all the way throughout the weekend. It is bumpy and so easy to make a mistake and as the circuit grip improves, the behaviour of the tyres changes a lot.

“There are lots of points to get the right set-up for, in particular the Prost curve – you need a good set-up to look after the front tyres and avoid under steer to get the best speed on the start-finish.

“We have had good winter testing, but now the real business starts. Last year was very good for us here, so I hope I will stay on track and have another good race.”

Tyre performance in Australia

• Australia is a semi-permanent facility that is not used extensively during the year and with smooth, non-abrasive asphalt. This means that the track is quite ‘green’ towards the beginning of the weekend, but evolves considerably as more rubber is laid down.

• Around two pit stops per car are expected: this turned out to be the winning strategy last year, with 11 of the 14 classified finishers adopting it.

• Acceleration and braking are the main characteristics of the 5.303 km Albert Park circuit, rather than any especially demanding corners. So the longitudinal forces at work on the tyres are greater than the lateral forces.

• The rear-left tyre is the most stressed at Albert Park as there are 10 right-hand corners and six left-hand corners.

• A wide variety of weather conditions are possible, from torrential rain to bright sunshine. The soft and medium tyres represent the most versatile combination of tyre to deal with an extensive range of temperatures.

• Last year, Pirelli nominated the hard compound together with the soft compound: the nomination for this year is less conservative – with the medium much closer in character to the 2011 soft.