2023-11-06 15:26:19
In view of the 2022 season and the change in technical regulations, Pirelli has designed new 18-inch tires. Even if the manufacturer’s specifications since its return to F1 in 2011 have always highlighted degradation as an essential component of the spectacle on track, this parameter has fluctuated over time, particularly when competitors began to complain about the need for too much management or, on the contrary, a lack of strategic differentiation.
In 2023, the balance was all the more difficult to find as the rubbers suffer significant overheating, and therefore degradation, when the cars find themselves in an air flow altered by one or more previous single-seaters. The phenomenon is much more present than last year because the regulations, although supposed to reduce it, are better controlled by the stables, which have therefore found ways to increase the support generated by the exposed surfaces and therefore to lower the airflow quality for following cars.
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The paradox often seen since 2011 is then found: for there to be differences in the use of rubber and therefore differentiated strategies at several stops, the tires must deteriorate quite significantly. However, if they deteriorate too much and too quickly, drivers cannot attack during relays.
The events that F1 wants to be disheveled and uncertain on a strategic level therefore tend, under normal circumstances, to transform into a waiting race where management is the key word because, given the time lost in the pits and the risks linked to traffic, it is often better to limit the number of stops than to multiply relays where it will not really be possible to attack continuously.
Pirelli to be sole tire supplier to Formula 1 until 2027, or even 2028 if the option is exercisedwill in this context begin research on a new concept for its products, trying to reconcile the different issues.
Speaking to selected media, including Motorsport.comPirelli competition director Mario Isola said: “Without heavy degradation there is no reason to aim for a two-stop race. But I also believe that most of the action on track is down to tire degradation and how well you are able to manage this deterioration.”
Mario Isola with Lando Norris, author of the best time during the shootout.
“If you reduce that, I’m convinced the risk is to have a train of cars because obviously if you can attack, I can attack, everyone can attack. It’s not a different tire for each driver. So I understand the drivers who complain about the high degradation of the tires because they would like to attack more, and this is a clear indication.”
Pirelli will start in the “next weeks” his analyzes on the subject. “What we want to understand is how to modify the spectacle on the track and reduce degradation”added Isola. “It’s something we can do. We need to design a tire with a different level of degradation and we can consider that option in the future. But it’s important to understand if there are any unintended consequences.”
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According to information from Motorsport.comPirelli will work with F1 and the teams to carry out its task because its own simulator to predict strategies does not take into account the effects linked to driving in traffic.
The 2024 tires having already been defined in their structure and in the range of rubbers that will be available, any change in concept will only take place in 2025. Isola also insists on the crucial aspect, for the Milanese firm and the championship , to have a sufficiently precise road plan for the future: “It is important that, for the future, these kinds of objectives are clarified in advance. We must understand what is good for the discipline, taking into account the advice and comments of the drivers, but in the interest discipline.”
With Matt Kew
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