Pirelli are hoping that their new range of tyres for the 2012 Formula One season will see more competition and closer races.
The Italian company, who debuted in the sport last season with a series wide range of tyres, has started by making their four dry-weather compounds softer.
It is all designed to ensure that races are even tighter, as team strategy becomes less predictable.
Pirelli presiden Marco Tronchetti Provera said: "These changes will provide more opportunity for passes and help make a better show."
The manufacturer were praised for their efforts in the 2011 season, which saw arguably more exciting racing, but there was some criticism aimed towards the gulf of difference in performance between the softer and harder compounds.
Teams tended to opt for starting on the soft compound, before switching to the slower, harder compound for the last stint of the race.
As Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery describes, the new compounds are less different, which should mean difference in performance is minimal.
He said: "There is a smaller gap in performance between the compounds. Last year the teams were making choices based on tyres that had a 1.5 seconds difference - we have tried to get that down below one second and the aim is to have it at around 0.8 seconds.
"We were going through races where teams would maximise use of the sets of the higher-performing compound, which were soft in 2011, and minimising use of the hard or medium.
"From that point of view the second compound would not come into the strategy.
"We want a lower gap between compounds, with the slower tyre degrading slightly less. Then teams will have to make a decision on which tyre to go with.
"Last year we made it too easy for the teams by using soft compounds at each weekend, so they based their weekends around that. This year we want to mix it up more."
