Quality of Tyres is Acceptable : Pirelli

Click to follow


Formula One drivers testing at Jerez have complained about high tyre wear but manufacturer Pirelli says its tyres are behaving as designed.
Pirelli replaces Bridgestone this year as the sole supplier of F1 tyres, and has had to design tyres from scratch after being out of F1 for some years.
Drivers have found that lap times can drop drastically - by as much as four seconds - over half a dozen laps, particularly using the Soft or Super-soft compounds.

But Pirelli's motorsport director Paul Hembery has said that the tyres are behaving as intended as the company tries to produce tyre compounds that will produce more exciting racing in 2011. If tyres will only last a few laps before 'going off', drivers will have to balance a less aggressive driving technique against a greater number of pit stops for fresh rubber.
"The teams are going from a situation where they could probably do 50-60 laps on one set of tyres. But if we did that we wouldn't have any strategy," Hembery was quoted as saying on the Auto sport website.
"We are trying to find the fine balance between longevity and forcing teams to make tyre changes. It's in line with what we were planning. It's actually a very complex thing to do. If you make a tyre that lasts too long, the teams will do one tyre change, which is what they have done in the past. To get away from that, you've got to almost force them to a point where the main choice of tyre can last around 100-110km in a race, considering that most races are between 300-320km."
Asked whether drivers would opt for up to four pit stops per race, Hembery said: "Not from the data we've seen, I'd question why anyone would be doing four. There might be three, but there are differences between teams. I still envisage two, and in the worst case maybe someone will have to do three, but four doesn't match the data that we've seen, that would be very strange."
"The one thing we have noticed is that drivers that look after their tyres for the first four to five laps, it can have quite a significant impact on the longevity of the product," added Hembery.
He confirmed that the company reserved the right to change compounds during the season.
With F1 testing now severely curtailed by the FIA, this would leave teams with no means of evaluating new rubber and turn the championship into a lottery, since tyre management is a critical component of competitiveness in F1.
"We've always said that we are humble enough to know we can't possibly know everything after six months of testing on our own, but if there is a case, we will decide with the FIA. It will be with the FIA, not the teams, because you risk giving favouritism," said Hembery.