Pirelli bring hardest tyres to Hungaroring for first time

2013 F1 season

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Pirelli will bring the hardest tyres from their compound range to the Hungarian Grand Prix in July.

The move came as F1’s official tyre supplier announced it would not bring the new tyre construction tested in Canada to a future race due to a lack of agreement from the teams.

Two years ago Pirelli brought its softest tyres (super-soft and soft) to the Hungaroring. This year the medium and hard compounds will be used. The 2013 specification tyres are softer than those used last year.

“Hungary is the slowest permanent track on the calendar but it still places a lot of demands on the tyres due to its twisty layout, which means that the tyres move around much more than on a fast and flowing track,” said Pirelli in a statement.

“This combined with often high ambient temperatures make the hard and medium compounds the best choice for this track, given that this year’s compounds are softer than last year’s range across the board.”

The low-grip nature of the Hungaroring means softer tyres are usually preferred. Two years ago Pirelli described tyre wear at the track as “not particularly extreme”.

Lewis Hamilton won last year’s Hungarian Grand Prix with one stint on soft tyres and two stints on mediums.

Circuit2013 Option2013 Prime2012 Option2012 Prime2011 Option2011 Prime
MelbourneSuper SoftMediumSoftMediumSoftHard
SepangMediumHardMediumHardSoftHard
ShanghaiSoftMediumSoftMediumSoftHard
BahrainSoftHardSoftMediumNo raceNo race
CatalunyaMediumHardSoftHardSoftHard
Monte-CarloSuper SoftSoftSuper SoftSoftSuper SoftSoft
MontrealSuper SoftMediumSuper SoftSoftSuper SoftSoft
SilverstoneMediumHardSoftHardSoftHard
NurburgringSoftMediumNo raceNo raceSoftMedium
HungaroringMediumHardSoftMediumSuper SoftSoft

2013 F1 season


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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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43 comments on “Pirelli bring hardest tyres to Hungaroring for first time”

  1. I believe this is strongest evidence that the tyre delaminations were not caused by ‘debris’ at all. Contrary to other comments that claim Pirelli is making these recent decisions to appease Red Bull, I believe its all to do with the softer compounds delaminating of their own accord and avoiding that happening again. Someone high up has said enough is enough. It’s the tyre failures that hurt the brand image most, not the rapid degradation.

    1. +1, maybe the delaminations is caused becuase of the high heat and the circuit, so the chances are to prevent more accidents.

    2. And what a disaster it will be in case delaminations happened during the Hungarian Grand Prix.

  2. Liam McShane (@)
    15th June 2013, 11:33

    Pirelli: Ok, we’ll not change the tyres, we’ll just bring harder one’s instead.

    1. Well, if I was Pirelli I would do the same to be honest…
      “You don’t want me to fix my problems ? That’s ok, I’ll fix them myself by being conservative”

  3. what a joke

  4. This is ridiculous.

  5. Hungaroring circuit is not used for racing enets too often so the softer tyres which give more grip are better and with this decision it is clear that pirelli wants to help Red Bull. But, they may want to bring the hardest tyres for this race because they will also bring the new tyres so they don’t want any problems and comments from the teams for the new tyres.

  6. Is anybody else reading into this as a way to help Mercedes with their tyre degradation issue and make them appear competitive in Hungary? It seems that since they couldn´t bring their new tyres, they must help them by bringing the hardest compoud. I predict we will seea whole lot more of the hardest compound in following races!

    1. @karter22, judging by your avatar, i think you should be more worried about this move helping Red Bull storm off into the distance. It’s been Red Bull and not Mercedes, who have been the most vocal about these tyres.

      1. @andrewf1
        Well, I really don´t think that´s the case, Mercedes seem to have a faster car than RBR and if they can get the tyres to work for them, Lewis and maybe Nico will take care of the rest since I believe and rate Lewis a lot higher than SV even though he just has 1 WDC. Anyways, I´m more worried about Mercedes because it is obvious Pirelli wants to help them out and MERC do have a fast car and as i said before, they have Lewis!

    2. In that respect then, it would be in Pirelli’s best interest to bring softer compounds, if anything? If Mercedes suddenly start having great race pace, it’s hardly going to go down well…

    3. They are not helping Mercedes, they are helping themselves, IMO.
      Delamination is a real problem and teams don’t want them to fix it. What would you do ?

      1. Liam McShane (@)
        15th June 2013, 18:51

        It’s not the compounds that are the problem with the delaminations. Changing the compounds will not fix this, Pirelli know that.

        1. @motor_mad it’s the bonding process, but the delaminations I presume are primarily caused by overheating of the glue bonding the rubber to the carcass. So harder compounds, which obviously transmit less heat, would help.

          1. Liam McShane (@)
            15th June 2013, 20:07

            Yeah, ok that makes sense :)

      2. @jons

        teams don’t want them to fix it. What would you do ?

        Well it´s a tough one because I can only assue the teams do want the problem fixed, the thing is that Pirelli cannot be trusted. If they would have behaved in a much more transparent way, nobody would have opposed. The secrecy is what burried them IMO!

  7. There must be a good reason for this – they obviously feel bringing the softer compounds to this track might create the same kind of race that garnered them so much criticism earlier on in the season…We might see cars pushing pretty hard as a result. On the other hand, I feel there might be some teams such as Ferrari/Lotus who might struggle heating the tyres up big time. But we’ll see.

  8. Unfair change in the middle of the competition, and not sure if this is for security concerns.. not sure at all …

    1. We are all getting confused by ‘terminology’. Softs, Mediums and Hards mean absolutely nothing if we have no idea what the initial compound to which the others relate.
      If I recall Pirreli saying this year’s range of tyres will be a step softer than last year’s, then I can simply deduce the exact same tyres as was used last year is what is on offer for 2013 in Hungary.

  9. I think it’s the best way to deal with this situation. Pirelli messed up this year’s tires and they need a face-saving exit strategy from this PR disaster.
    The construction change would be unfair – but the compound choice for each track is theirs to make.

    1. @tmf42

      Pirelli messed up this year’s tires

      I think that’s deeply unfair. Pirelli built te 2013 mtyres the way they have always done: in accordance with a design brief that was approved by the teams. Furthermore, the teams had the power to get the tyres changed, but could not agree on it, forcing the status quo to remain as it currently is. If anyone deserves criticism for the current situation, it is the teams.

      1. @prisoner-monkeys If Pirelli cant take the heat then they shouldn’t have agreed on making rubbish tires on purpose in the first place, they should have shown integrity and refused anything than trying their best.

      2. @prisoner-monkeys – Granted they had a difficult task to supply tires which they could never really test before the final specs had to be completed. But they made decisions about the design which ultimately led to this situation and they are responsible for their product.

        The teams blocking a mid-season change is about the mitigation of a problem Pirelli created in the first place. And considering that most of them spend millions to find a few tenths in the car I can understand why there is no agreement to change tyre specs that significantly.

  10. Reason this is been done is simple, There listening to all the criticism.

    I know it will be labeled as Pirelli bowing to pressure from Red Bull/Mercedes, However I’ve said all year that the majority of teams/driver were unhappy with 2013 tyres. The media were critical of the 2013 tyres & most importantly the fans were unhappy with the 2013 tyres.
    Pirelli got a ton of negative feedback from early races & especially the levels of tyre management been seen & that included a ton from fans.

    Rightly or wrongly there simply listening to the feedback & doing what the majority of that feedback has been asking for & thats tyres that encourage harder racing & less tyre management.

    IF they get the contract for 2014 the 2014 tyres are almost certainly going to be extremely durable.

    1. IF they get the contract for 2014 the 2014 tyres are almost certainly going to be extremely durable.

      I disagree with that. Pirelli haven’t backed down in the face of criticism before, so why start now? If they maintain the supply in 2014, they will continue to build the tyres that the teams request. If there is any difference in what they supply, it will be because the teams requested it.

      1. @prisoner-monkeys
        Paul Hembery

        You can get some indications that the power delivery will be very different, the top speed will be different, the aero loads will be dramatically different. There’s a big question on the correct tire sizes for next year, you’ll have less aero downforce, so maybe you need wider tires to create grip. There’s a risk of having excessive wheelspin.
        So there’s a lot of parameters there that would create quite a lot of concern, so you’d have to take from my point of a view a very conservative approach, so we’ll be back to no pit stops or one if you need to, and talk about other things.

        http://www.autoweek.com/article/20130523/f1/130529897

        1. @beneboy – That doesn’t prove anything, except that Pirelli are aware of the variables they can play with to affect tyre behaviour. They’ll still wait for the teams to make specific requests of how the tyres perform, and use those variables to tailor a tyre to meet those requests.

  11. In my view The Original Problem started with Pirelli Idea of Creating much softer Compounds. Their Estimation went wrong from the Testing but they neglected the truth by Blaming Weather conditions. Then we have Australia, China races which proved the Softer Compounds are Not even lasting barely for 70 Km.
    Their Pursuit of Softness made the Durable tire of the Current Specification is not durable enough and which was Almost the Medium Tire of 2012 Specification. They said they will go for the Aggressive Approach at the early part of the year but now they are going Conservative Because of their Tires Inability.
    In my Opinion had they stuck for 2012 Tires and went aggressive with their Approach The Racing could be Much Interesting.

  12. Jose Froilan Gonzalez has died at the age of 90. He won Ferrari first GP, the 1951 British GP. Rest in peace.

  13. They are just being more conservative with the compound choices here, totally understandable when you take into account the future over tires this year.

    1. Furore, not “future”!

  14. I just read the 2nd DRS zone will between turns 2 & 3. Whats the point? Should have been between 3 & 4 or better yet 11 & 12…

    Id like them to trail 3 compounds at each race meet, might add some strategy spice… I know I know, costs, costs…

    1. I really hope that is just a rumour and not reality…

  15. The shear fact that anything this critical is in the hands of the tire supplier and not the FIA is disastrous.

    The farce goes on and on while the credibility of F1 continues to decline. What a sad era we are in!

  16. What’s the fuss about? It’s been said repeatedly that this year’s tires are about one step softer than last year’s.

    Last year they brought the soft and medium.

    This year they’re bringing the medium and hard.

    Take them down one step and they’re essentially……soft and medium from last year.

    Also, the article starts saying they used the super soft and soft last year, but the table and recount of last years race says soft and medium…. What gives?

    1. The article says that 2 years ago, they used super soft and soft. Which is 2011 – that’s what the chart says.

  17. Nobody is going to do a hot lap during the race…. no event Super hard tires….

  18. Why on earth has the sport been brought to this point?
    They are just tyres for goodness sake. They should just be round black things that let the teams get on with their business of racing.
    Why are we concerned about softs versus supersofts versus softs-which-are-really-quite-hard versus hards-with more-than-a-alittle-bit-of-soft?
    The situation has become absurd with the focus on grades of tyres to suit a particular track or team. No one really obsesses about the grade of asphalt that a track is covered in, and it should be the same with the tyres. They should just be the black things between the car and he road.

  19. Michael Brown (@)
    16th June 2013, 14:50

    It doesn’t change anything compared to last year because this year’s hard and medium is the same as last year’s medium and soft.

  20. Joao Pitol (@)
    16th June 2013, 19:16

    This is a very strange year ….. If Pirelli had chosen softs Lotus and Ferrari would have a very strong race. Choosing a harder compound favors other teams. I am speechless, how did we end in a situation where Pirelli picks the winning teams from race to race. FIA needs to sort this out for next year, maybe by limiting compounds to soft and hard.

  21. I’m not really looking forward to Silverstone and Hungaroring. It’s going to be the same Red Bull dominance all over again.

Comments are closed.