Three races down, what are people's opinions on the new tyres? Personally I think they're spot on in terms of how long they last; three stops today with the option of two. But the degradation is way too high, the drivers are having to nurse them way too much. In 2011 the wear was high, even higher than this year, but the degradation was lower which opened up the strategy more. The teams were given a choice of running the tyres hard and doing an extra stop and we saw a lot of races where they would run options until they ran out because they could push them hard without taking too much laptime out of them, it just cost them an extra stop. This year they seem to have to nurse the so much through a stint, because if they push, the laptimes fall off so much that they're unable to regain the time needed to pit. I think it's having a detrimental effect on racing too. Drivers are being told to back off from cars they're not significantly faster than, because the increased degradation caused by following a car closely means after a couple of laps the tyres will be too damaged to follow closely and they'll start losing time. There were signs of this towards the end of last year. There were a few races where Pirelli brought hard compounds to make one stop races. In light of widespread criticism that the drivers were unable to push the idea was that they'd bring tyres that could easily make the end so they didn't have to be conserved. But the problem of high degradation still existed, so the drivers still had to be careful through the race so the pace was still there at the end of their stints. And this year the tyres are even more extreme in terms of degradation, to the extent that in Australia they were losing large chunks of time by the third sector on options, meaning to set a fast qualifying lap it was quicker to conserve slightly in the first half of the lap than push the whole way round. They're not going to do anything about this year, like Kimi says, you'd better like it or do something else, but I hope they sort it out for next season (assuming their contract is renewed), it's killing the action a bit.
Fully agree, it's a different challenge for the drivers, but the spectacle has been diminished. I'd rather tyres that you can either rag the life out of for 15 laps, or preserve for 20, and the strategy split that way. Having said that, it was a better race today than I expected.
Yes. I agree. Pirelli have gone too far. Two or three stops (as viable alternatives to each other) is fine by me, although I'd prefer that there might also be a regular possibility of just one as well ! But as AG says, the degradation is too high. These tyres need to be more durable. I'd like to see them firm up all compounds by about 10%; that way they will retain a desirable performance delta but with a better margin for alternative strategies without race pace being dictated by so much concern over race pace. The other alternative, which would work, would be to give them all an extra set of tyres – but I see this as less desirable than what I've just suggested because we should not be deliberately creating even more pit-stops! However, I am sure Pirelli have now realised they brought the wrong compounds to Shanghai: if they'd gone for Hard primes and Medium options, I don't think we'd have been having this discussion as we are – immediately after the event. Bahrain will be interesting because it is likely to be very hot. Red Bull and Ferrari – and in particular Lotus – should enjoy the conditions relative to the likes of Mercedes and McLaren. But yes, I agree that Pirelli need to provide compounds which do not disintegrate ridiculously quickly.
I think they'd work perfectly if the refueling rule comes back. But maybe the softs need hardening up slightly though.
The problem is that while there are more overtakes it is many ways on a day like today only due to the fact that the drivers cannot afford to fight it out as they are all running their own race based on the tyres. Hearing Button ask his engineer whether or not he should fight Hamilton was depressing to hear as a race fan. I have defended Pirelli but this weekend was too far a rather poor spectacle seeing drivers in effect waving each other through.
It's just too comical now. Bring back harder compounds.. allow drivers to race each other beyond a corner.
Spot on! Agree with what's already been written here so won't add anymore other than. Either toughen up the compounds or bring more appropriate tyres to each race!
Not sure if this is relevant to here but: F1 rookies set to get extra set of tyres for Friday practice Formula 1 teams running rookie drivers during Friday morning practice are set to get an extra set of tyres from the Spanish Grand Prix onwards. Pirelli has proposed to supply an additional set of tyres, built to the same construction as the current race rubber but using a more durable compound, for any team running a rookie driver on Friday mornings.
So effectively a "super hard", BLS? Nice idea, it means we aren't staring at any empty track for half a session, the teams can get a better look at young drivers, and it'll help the drivers themselves to bridge the gap. It'd be interesting to see whether teams take advantage of this for straight-line aero work (for example), as I can't imagine the tyre compound makes much difference to that, you'll still get the same patterns in the flow-viz paint. If teams do, I hope it becomes the norm for a development driver to get the first half hour, at every team, rather than the top teams realising others are effectively getting free testing and getting the idea scrapped.
I think it'll be somewhere around last years Hard, but I don't think its confirmed yet. Hopefully it'll make a difference to fp1 but to an extent the cars are parts limited to so I don;t expect much more running.
Agreed, want to save costs, make a tyre that can last an entire GP distance, with DRS we have enough artificial aides that help with over taking!
