Pirelli Tyres Will Make Races Surprising

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McLaren's Lewis Hamilton says that the rapid degradation of the Pirelli tyres could make drivers pit three times for tyres in races.

Most drivers at the first of the season's Formula One tests at Valencia this week noted rapid deterioration of their tyres. For this season Pirelli replaces Bridgestone as the sole supplier of tyres, and drivers and engineers are grappling with setting up cars for the unfamiliar compounds on offer from the Italian company.

But Hamilton sees this as a positive because the higher number of pit stops will break up the processional nature of many F1 races.

"It looks like there is a quite a big difference between compounds, or so it seems for some people. For us I don't know if there was too big a difference," he said on the Autosport web site. "Obviously last year we had one pit stop and now the degradation is massive on these tyres and it might be for some people that they have to do two or three pit stops – which I think is quite good. I didn't actually like doing one pit stop last year, I didn't think it was as exciting as it was in the past when we did two or three. I'm hoping that we have to do more this year, because it adds more excitement."

Mercedes GP's Nico Rosberg also agreed.
"I am not concerned," said the German. "It will make the racing more exciting. We have seen in the past that the most exciting races were when the tyres collapsed in the biggest way, like Montreal last year, so that is not an issue. The important thing is that we then have a good car because if you have a good car you can make the best of such degradation on the tyre."

It was Hamilton's first outing in an F1 car since the end of last season.
"It felt great to be back in the car. I haven't been driving for a while, so it felt good to brush away the cobwebs, and I felt at home straight away," he said. "Even though we were using the 2010 car, we had quite a productive day. We were trying to replicate 2011 downforce levels on the old car -- so it wasn't 100 per cent accurate -- but we still got a good understanding of the new Pirellis and covered quite a lot of ground. The new tyres are easy to get a feel for; there's not as much grip on the Pirellis as we had last year; they drop off quite a bit, too, and they're a little bit harder to control over a longer stint -- but it's the same for everybody."