Pirelli has revealed its tyre compound selection for the 2016 Bahrain Grand Prix and China Grand Prix which host the second and third rounds of next season’s Formula 1 championship.

New for 2016, teams will be able to choose between three compounds for a race weekend in an effort to give it more flexibility over strategies. Of the 13 seats being made available over the course of a race weekend, Pirelli will choose two for the race, one of which must be used during the race.

As part of the changes, Pirelli is announcing its tyre compound selections 15 weeks before an overseas F1 event, which reduces to nine weeks for all European rounds.

Pirelli has selected the same three compounds for Bahrain and China as picked for the season opener Australia. The Bahrain race weekend is to be held on the 1-3 April with the China race following two weeks afterwards on the 15-17 April.

-P Zero White medium
-P Zero Yellow soft
-P Zero Red supersoft

Each driver must have both these sets available for the race and must use at least one of them.

These are the tyres that Pirelli has said must be used at some point in the race:

-One set of P Zero White medium
-One set of P Zero Yellow soft.

In addition to the new tyre regulations for 2016 drivers will save a set of the softest of the three nominated compounds (supersoft) for Q3, and the drivers who make Q3 must give these tyres back to Pirelli after being used while the remaining drivers will keep these tyres for the race.