Pirelli to bring soft tyre instead of hard at Hungary

F1 Fanatic Round-up

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In the round-up: Pirelli choose to soften their tyre compounds for Hungary due to the planned change in construction.

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Pirelli tyres to be softer in Hungary (BBC)

“The new choices now mirror those used in Hungary last year [medium and soft], but because Pirelli is using softer rubber compounds across its tyre range this season, the tyres used at the Hungaroring in 2013 will effectively be one grade softer than last year.”

F1 teams must lose test paranoia – Pirelli (Autosport)

Pirelli motorsport director: “We are not interested in helping one team over another, we just want to do our job. We don’t care if we do tests with five different teams, one after the other.”

Bernie Ecclestone denies Nurburgring bid rumours (Autocar)

“The 82-year-old has since denied that he has put in a bid for the track before the deadline of 12 June.”

Home win (ESPN)

“After qualifying Mark Webber peered into Lewis Hamilton’s cockpit, most likely at the request of his engineers who probably suspect Mercedes have some sort of special device in there.”

Rookie diary – with Marussia’s Max Chilton (F1)

“Obviously I had the incident in Monaco with Pastor Maldonado. I did learn from it, but to be honest with you even if I’d been in F1 for 20 years, I would have still done the same thing. I wasn’t aware of anything around me – I knew there was a car behind me but I wasn’t expecting him to put his car there. That’s why I came across.”

Stefan Johansson chats about the British Grand Prix… (Stefan Johansson)

“Pirelli was obviously given a mandate and they tried to satisfy it but you can only do so much. We used to test for six weeks in Rio during the off-season with Goodyear. We ran so many tyres every day it was ridiculous. On average, we did about two grand prix distances per day. We went round and round doing race simulations all day long. It doesn’t make financial sense to do that now. But I still think there would be some benefit to having some testing for everyone.”

If you don’t want to know the result, look away now: BBC apologise after revealing Lewis Hamilton finished in pole position (The Independent)

“The BBC has apologised for revealing who finished on pole position for the German Grand Prix before the highlights were broadcast.”

F1?óÔé¼??s golden oldies (NBC)

“In his eighth decade, [NASCAR driver Morgan] Shepherd outstrips by far the oldest drivers who’ve successfully competed in Formula One.”

Tweets

Comment of the day

@Testguy thinks Ferrari should find a new team mate for Fernando Alonso:

Massa has scored 441 points since the start of the 2010 season, to Alsonso’s 910. That’s 48% of Alonso’s tally, which means he’s almost half as good in equal machinery.

Forget it. Massa used to be good, was in a terrible accident, and hasn’t recovered since. I know his role is playing second fiddle to Alonso but he doesn’t seem to be able to live up to that anymore. Please plonk the guy in a DTM car or something and leave the second Ferrari to somebody able to work it.
@Testguy

From the forum

Happy birthday!

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On this day in F1

Alain Prost won the British Grand Prix 20 years ago today, giving him a 20-point lead over Ayrton Senna in the drivers’ championship.

His win came at the expense of team mate Damon Hill, who had been leading until his engine failed.

Senna also had misfortune, running out of fuel late in the race. That promoted the Benettons of Michael Schumacher and Ricciardo Patrese to second and third.

Here’s Hill’s retirement as it was (almost) seen live by Eurosport viewers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPR_nhO1hQ4

Image © Pirelli/LAT

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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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50 comments on “Pirelli to bring soft tyre instead of hard at Hungary”

  1. This Mark Webber shot is hilarious! Any ideas what he might be looking for?

    1. Webber was looking for his BlackBerry.

    2. That is a good one. Wonder if Red Bull has him equipped with a Google Glass or similar device like a spy cam. ha ha!

      1. I think all drivers should have a cam in their helmets like Bottas, that would help in “spy missions”

    3. Wait until you see the gif. Bloody brilliant.

      http://i.imgur.com/uRvvctH.gif

      1. FlyingLobster27
        11th July 2013, 8:18

        o_O How on Earth has Mercedes not got RBR thrown out of the championship with a $100M fine yet?! Wow, that is one nice, long gawp…

        1. @FlyingLobster27

          All drivers look in cars from other teams.

    4. Would we see an end to shots like this under the new Pitlane rules?

      1. its taken from the onboard camera… what do u think @JA.Walton…

        1. Heh. My bad. Thanks for pointing that out.

        2. Not this ONE which was the photo presented in the corresponding link in the article above.

    5. Caption competition time!

    6. I remember when Brudle said on the live coverage “he might be looking for those 2 tenths Lewis pulled off”

  2. On the tyres for Hungary: I am confused. I thought the compound had nothing to do with how fragile the tyres were in terms of destroying themselves – just the construction? So why change?

    1. @mike-dee The tyres were hard to avoid over-stressing them, now that they have fixed the problem they chose compounds that will actually work in the mid-slow long corners of Hungary.

    2. The 2012 construction means they are harder to warm up, meaning a softer tyre will give the same result.

      Everyone questioned using the hard tyre on such a slow technical circuit anyway.

  3. With regards to the softer tire compounds, I think this is good news for Lotus and Ferrari.

    1. Purely coincidentally, it may slow down Vettels runaway charge to the championship, a bit.

      1. @hohum
        Having a 34 point lead at the mid season point hardly defines as a “runaway”. Alonso’s lead after Germany last year was even bigger.

        1. @kingshark – That may be true, but Vettel doesn’t have Vettel/RBR chasing him.

          Nor does he have Grosjean crashing into him. (Sorry, Romain. Had to.)

          1. Up until germany neither did Alonso last year. There is still plenty of time for someone to take Vettel out and send his campaign t**s up. Also mercs tire problem only seem to come out in super hot conditions as opposed to all the time, so a few cloudy/cooler races and they’re back in the game in a big way.

        2. @kingshark, how many more DNFs do you expect SV to have ?

          1. @hohum
            It depends on how many Grosjean’s there are out there, ready to strike at any given moment.

            What if the new tyre changes come to Hungary allow Mercedes to do qualifying laps during the race? Then would you still be so confident about Vettel’s “guaranteed” championship?

    2. typically it’ll have no real effect on red bull.

  4. Interesting developments all-around. Cheers.

  5. OmarR-Pepper (@)
    11th July 2013, 1:17

    These 2 weeks and 4 days (or 3 and counting back) will be as long as the shooting between Pirelli and the teams.

  6. MB (@muralibhats)
    11th July 2013, 1:43

    Hopefully Lotus can convert last year’s 2-3 to 1-2 this year!

  7. Buxton has a good blog post on his website talking about how these new media rules for pitlane aren’t really that new & vast as they’re made out to sound like and how it’s not really the changes that needed to be made.

    1. For sure. Buxton is spot on. Thanks for the heads up.

  8. Judging by Hamilton’s start on Sunday, Webber was obviously planting his clutch into Lewis’ car.
    It makes sense now that Webber made the best start of the top 3.

  9. Coming back to the tire coming off issue. All teams would have to is design the hubs the have angled pins(there is a more technical term but I can’t think of it at the moment). This should self lock the tire in place when the wheels spin so you might have a wheel that is loose but it should not fly off. The wheel may be a little sticky to pull off at a pit stop but at least you are changing 4 wheels and not 3.

  10. Will Buxton’s tweet is very telling. Am also anticipating what we will see in Hungary. Hope every broadcaster sticks to the new rules so that the powers that be see the results and really reconsider.And hope audiences voice their opinion.

  11. OmarR-Pepper (@)
    11th July 2013, 5:36

    @keithcollantine some people have said it would be irrelevant… but why not having some stats graphs showin just one racer year-by-year points comparison. For example: Instead of choosing to compare Alonso and Vettel, you compare Alonso 2006 vs Alonso 2012.. probably the conversion of points could be an obstacle, so instead you could show his ranking year by year at round Nº X. That could be attached to their bio,
    I’m sorry for asking so much! But it’s for all this stuff of last year’s advantages and so on

  12. I have to agree with the COTD. Massa has been underpeforming and inconsistent since 2010. I’m not sure if his results can motivate the team, which knows that it could easily hire a quicker driver or at least someone, who is more consistent.

    That said, his loyalty to the [Alonso’s] team has helped him retain the seat so far and it’s possible that his chances to stay with Ferrari in 2014 depend more on Alonso’s results than Massa’s own performance. If Alonso is in a close fight for the title, then Ferrari will be interested to have a motivated and loyal second driver alongside him as it was the case at the end of 2012.

    It’s really one of the saddest careers that I have ever witnessed as an F1 fan. After the 2009 crash, Massa has mostly been too slow (or off the track) and his best efforts have not been rewarded enough because of bad luck or the need to help Alonso’s title bid. Unfortunately there is no happy end in sight at the moment.

    1. @girts – I don’t disagree with your points. However, the team only gets money for constructors’ points, not drivers’. It is a fine line, as they are the same thing, but an underperforming MAS hurts the team, even if it helps keep ALO happy which helps the team.

      1. @hobo

        the team only gets money for constructors’ points, not drivers’

        Except Ferrari that get a very handsome sum regardless of their position.

  13. Tires this, tires that, tires tires tires, sick to death of it! Of to follow BTCC an Moto GP least they actually race and I can watch it without lining the pocket of Murdoch(spit).

  14. Is Bernie going to buy the Nurburgring instead of going to jail in Germany – seems to have got away with his visit!!

  15. Love the flow-chart. Looks like I should start rooting for For Force India :)

    1. Since I’m ambivalent regarding tradition, I’m stuck with a choice between Merc and Sauber. Would someone please sell me a Wendlinger shirt so I can be on my way?

  16. Don’t think I agree with the blanket ban on journalism in the pit lane. They should just be banned from standing in stupid places.

  17. And here we go again with changing tyres mid season… geez, they really shouldn´t be that obvious with whom they favour.
    This is just getting to be a ridiculous season. I want it over as soon as possible whatever the outcome may be.

    1. And who do they favor pray tell, because I have no idea.

  18. So with TV crews gone from pitlane we won’t see 20+ pitstops each race in which nothing out of the ordinary usually happens while racing is taking place on track? Works for me.

    1. @njack, thanks for looking on the bright side, yea! And no more driver X sulking in the back of the garage either, and really hopefully no more pit-crew celebrations while the rest of the podium is being decided in the last corner.

  19. Redbull not going to like the tire choice for the Hungary GP. with possible high temps, they might qualify on the prime tires and go deep into to the race

    1. @scuderia_fan85 – I think that may be the case, but calling it a given is a stretch. RBR were good on last year’s tires, which is why they’ve been crying for them since the start of the year. Now they have them, nearly. The yet-to-see is whether the 2012 construction has more impact (which would help RBR) or the 2013 rubber compound (which might hurt RBR). Even then, the 2013 tires to this point haven’t been all that bad for them.

      1. the only difference made is to the construction to prevent delaminations and explosions. but the compound is the same; wear rate(which is what RBR and Mercedes have been struggling with all season), speed and grip. ntn has been done in RBR’s favour

  20. The banning of pit of photographers and the press from the pit lane seems a bit of a knee jerk reaction to me. Webber’s tyre bouncing down the pit lane was certainly frightening to behold. If it had hit a wheel man or team principle the horror seeing it happen would have been the same. However, the FIA wouldn’t have silly as to ban mechanics or team principles from the pits. Generally speaking, the press are used to dangerous situations, indeed, many crave it because that’s where the action is and hence the stories are . It’s a ruling that needs to be rethought. F1 needs all the good press it can get.

  21. yes, great news for lotus. they might just turn their 2-3 in a 1-2, hopefully

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