Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo is not convinced Pirelli's choice of its three hardest tyre compounds for the Spanish Grand Prix was the right decision.
For the first time this year, Pirelli will bring the soft, medium and hard compounds to a grand prix to cope with the high-energy loads put through the tyres in Barcelona's fast corners. In testing at the same track earlier this year, relatively few sets of the hard compound tyres were used and when they were the teams struggled to get them working properly.
Part of the reason is that Pirelli was unable to test with 2017 levels of downforce last year and it wanted to make sure it had a range of compounds capable of dealing with the most extreme loads. The hard compound is likely to be disregarded for most of the weekend in Spain, and after Red Bull has struggled on harder compounds compared to rivals Mercedes and Ferrari this year, Ricciardo believes the wrong choice has been made for Barcelona.
"We're going for the harder tyres for the first time this year in Barcelona," he said. "I'm not sure if it'll help us or not but I just don't think it's going to be good for anyone. The tyres are already hard enough so the harder compounds are just way too hard.
"Hopefully for Barcelona's sake it's hot and therefore these harder tyres work, but if it's cold then it's going to be a struggle for everyone."
Red Bull will bring a major upgrade package to the Spanish Grand Prix after a disappointing start to the year.
"I hope the upgrade will give us a chance to really fight with Mercedes and Ferrari or at least get us closer," Ricciardo said. "The reason why it comes in Barcelona is that we put everything back in the factory and we were very busy, so now I hope that it's a quicker improvement.
"It means that the people who do the work behind the scenes get their reward as well. It's a good feeling for everyone when these upgrades work."