Qatar tyre torture test: Why F1 drivers can't go beyond 25 laps

Formula 1 drivers are used to managing tyres, but the Qatar Grand Prix will again push that concept into almost unknown territory later this year.

For the 2025 event at Lusail, the FIA and Pirelli have introduced a strict maximum of 25 laps per tyre set, a rare intervention designed to prevent structural failures in the penultimate round of the season after analysis of Friday running in 2024 revealed micro-damage inside several used tyres.

The ruling means every driver has a hard cap on tyre life, regardless of compound, forcing teams into multi-stop strategies and turning the Sunday race into a series of shorter sprints.

Ironically, Qatar is also the final sprint weekend of the season.

Laps to the grid and formation laps and those completed after the chequered flag won’t be included in the count.

With Sunday’s race being 57 laps, it means every driver will at least need to stop twice. Pitting won’t be required in the 19-lap sprint race.

The concerns over tyre problems led Pirelli and the FIA to impose an 18-lap limit for the 2023 race, so this year’s restrictions are not new, although Pirelli insists the issues two years ago, including jagged kerbs, were different and have now been resolved.

“Last year, the subsequent modification to the pyramid kerbs along with the addition of strips of gravel around them, had avoided a repetition of this situation,” Pirelli said.

While the situation in Qatar might feel extreme, it provides a rare window into a broader question that fans often ask: how far can an F1 driver actually go on a single set of tyres?

The answer is complicated, because tyre longevity is shaped by the constant push-and-pull between circuit design, car characteristics, driver style and tyre construction.

Qatar just happens to bring the worst of those factors together all at once.

Why Qatar exposes F1 tyre limits

The problems in Qatar stem from three main elements: kerbs, loads and thermal stress.

Lusail is lined with aggressive ‘pyramid’ kerbs that generate repeated, high-frequency impacts on the carcass. Although the kerbs were modified for last year’s event, small oscillations still build up over time.

Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz suffered punctures during last year’s race.

Pirelli’s post-session inspection found the same pattern of internal micro-separation it first detected at the 2023 race, despite the circuit having rounded off some sections.

That consistency raised red flags: even with the mitigations, the kerbs were still loading the tyres beyond what Pirelli considers safe for a race-distance stint.

Another factor is the sheer amount of load the tyres experience at Lusail. The layout flows from one high-speed corner to another, with only a brief respite on the straight.

Long, loaded corners like Turns 12, 13 and 14 create huge lateral forces that don’t just reduce grip but also continuously flex the tyre’s internal structure, building heat in the casing. With minimal low-speed sections to cool them down, the tyres stay in a permanently elevated thermal window.

All of that conspires to make Lusail the perfect storm of high energy, high temperature and high impact, leading to the restrictions imposed by Pirelli and the FIA.

What the Qatar limit says about tyre life

The Qatar situation is an outlier, but the principles behind it apply everywhere.

1. Circuit layout is king

Tracks like Silverstone, Suzuka and Qatar are tyre-killers because they load the carcass for long periods at high speed. Conversely, circuits like Monaco and Singapore generate less sustained load, meaning tyres degrade for different reasons: heat, sliding, traction events, and surface roughness.

2. Kerbs matter

Running wide at places like Qatar, COTA or the Red Bull Ring can shred a tyre’s structure far faster than pure pace would suggest. Teams study kerb profiles in detail because a few millimetres of extra serration can change a race plan.

3. Car philosophy plays a role

A high-downforce car with great balance protects its tyres by keeping them in their optimal window. A car with instability or mechanical limitations will slide more, overheat the surface rubber and shorten usable life. That’s why some teams can do a 35-lap medium stint and others start graining after 12 laps.

4. Driver style, the final variable

Smooth inputs, progressive throttle and precise energy management can dramatically extend tyre life. Aggressive steering, traction-heavy exits and constant micro-corrections do the opposite.

So how far can a driver go?

In normal conditions, a hard compound might last 40–50 laps, a medium 30–35, and a soft anywhere from 10 to 25, depending on track and temperature.

Those numbers, however, vary depending on the factors mentioned above and on Pirelli’s chosen compound for each event.

In Qatar, the Italian manufacturer will use the hardest version of its rubber: C1 as the hard, C2 as the medium and C3 as the soft.

Qatar pushes all of the factors affecting tyre life to the limit at once, which is why the FIA and Pirelli have decided to draw a line in the sand at 25 laps as a safety precaution.