Pirelli expects strategy shift from “aggressive” tyres

2013 Indian Grand Prix

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Pirelli believe its change of tyre compounds for this weekend’s race in India will lead teams to use more aggressive strategies.

The hard and soft tyres have been used for both previous races at the Buddh International Circuit, but this year the medium and soft compounds have been chosen.

Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery said their previous choices of compounds “might have been slightly on the conservative side”.

“This year we’ve gone for a softer and slightly more aggressive choice,” said Hembery.

“We only had one pit stop per car in India last year, but this year we would expect two – which also provides the drivers and teams with more opportunities to make up places.

F1’s official tyre supplier is bringing a softer selection of tyres for this weekend’s race for only the second time this year – as it also did in Australia. As the 2013 rubber is softer than that used last year, its Pirelli’s of compounds for most races this season have been the same as last year or harder.

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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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37 comments on “Pirelli expects strategy shift from “aggressive” tyres”

  1. I prefer tire compounds choices that can stop Rbr domination…….

    1. You might get your wish for a couple of races if they tried concrete tyres ;)

  2. Chris (@tophercheese21)
    22nd October 2013, 10:49

    So they choose hard and medium for COTA (Arguably the smoothest track on the calendar)… Real aggressive.

    1. haha new teams won’t be able to heat them up (or massive graining for everyone)!

    2. it may be smooth, but it hasnt been used much as it’s only a year old. so the surface may still be slippy (hence more tyre deg due to sliding).

      but still, I’d like to see the super softs and softs at every race!

      1. Do you like 4 pit-stop races? ^^

        1. Michael Brown (@)
          22nd October 2013, 20:49

          6-7 stops at Catalunya!

    3. Last years race was fantastic largely due to the fact the drivers could push on the tyres, and people complain that we might have the same this year? Sad.

      1. Chris (@tophercheese21)
        23rd October 2013, 2:14

        Oh, I’m all for more durable tyres, but Pirelli they’re going aggressive, and then they choose the two hardest compounds for COTA and Brazil.

        I can understand the choice for Brazil from a degradation standpoint, but COTA is incredibly smooth, and I would still think there would be good racing if they brought the Soft and Medium.

  3. i fear the graining of right front tyre.

    1. Why? The left-front takes all the punishment around Buddh.

      1. @prisoner-monkeys Did you see the thermal camera on Vettel’s car going through 130R in Japan? The inside tyre heated up more than the outside tyre. DC on the BBC was quite confused but it. But I think with the right set up on the right car the direction and speed of a corner is almost irrelevant.

  4. So more tyre management races then, Wonderful :(
    More 2 second gaps, Less good, hard, Close racing!

    Martin Brundle said on the Sky coverage at Suzuka that he asked most the drivers about the levels of tyre management seen in 2013 & they all said they “Absolutely hate it”. I agree with them, Its absolutely dire!

    1. It seems Dizzy, that you and I are lone voices in the wilderness. Perhaps if I had grown up with computer games I might be glad to see F1 turned into a cross between Chess and Snakes and Ladders but as it is I prefer to see drivers testing their car control skills for the duration of the race.

  5. ‘Sebastian, watch the wear on your front left tyre, don’t push too hard. Watch out for backmarkers, remember Senna ’88’ (or WHATEVER year, in reference to being careful overtaking backmarkers).
    OH shut up rocky. face it, you never have any problems in the race.

    1. Sometimes I wonder if Red Bull’s problems aren’t carefully-designed PR exercises, since they never eventuate. The one time Vettel did have a genuine problem – in Brazil last year when his floor cracked after the collision with Senna – they said nothing about it.

      1. His engine failed at Silverstone.

      2. They said they could see the damage on screen and that there was nothing they could do about it during the race. Vettel himself said he was lucky that the race was wet, as it minimized the effect of the damage. What more should they have said? You have a crack of 5 inches in your bodywork with a width of a few mm, … They couldn’t do anything about it, unlike when you can shortshift your gearbox etc.

    2. Apart from excessive tyre wear, gearbox glitches and inattentive backmarkers.

    3. At least Rocky doesn’t keep saying boring radio messages like “Remember to drink…”
      There is always some drama between Rocky and Seb ;)

    4. Rocky “Seb, that’s Hamilton ahead of you, go lap him!”

  6. Yay more explosions! \o/

  7. good news for Ferrari!

    1. Yes, Indeed. They might get both cars into the points table! ;)

      1. Well, Ferrari got the tyres they wanted for Korea and they had a bad race … this while RB was pushing for the soft instead of the super soft …

  8. Shreyas Mohanty (@)
    22nd October 2013, 15:08

    @sato113 A year old? It’s three years old actually, first Indian GP in 2011 remember? And it’s used a lot too, I myself have done quite a bit of karting there, albeit the karting track merges with the f1 track for only about 40% of the length. And there is a lot of super and sports car racing too! Lambos and Ferraris are a common sight!

    1. Shreyas Mohanty (@)
      22nd October 2013, 15:10

      Sorry @sato113, you were talking about COTA! I misread and thought you were talking about BIC!

  9. The fact that there is even the discussion that the tyres coule (Or indeed should) be used to limit one teams ‘domination’ with many fans encouraging that approach shows just how far Formula 1 has fallen & just how big a joke both it & Pirelli’s tyres are.

    1. Michael Brown (@)
      22nd October 2013, 20:43

      I don’t like how the FIA has to keep banning anything that gives an advantage. Double diffusers, blown diffusers, double DRS, and in 2014 the exhaust is going to exit clear of the bodywork which is another attempt to stop Red Bull

  10. To be honest, I don’t want “aggressive strategies”. I want strategy to be a subtle addition to improve the racing, not the dominant factor. Preferably, I’d always want one stop to be an option, whether two stops is the maximum or indeed the one is the maximum and you could potentially run to the end (in races like Monaco or Monza for example).

    Hopefully that will be the case next year, although that stupid rule is being retained I believe that you must use both compounds and start on the tyres you qualified with.

    1. Michael Brown (@)
      22nd October 2013, 20:47

      @vettel1 That qualifying rule is stupid. Whenever there has been a wet qualifying and a dry start, most of the cars start on the softer tires anyway. I think it would be more exciting if we got to see a situation where the pole sitter started on the harder tires, like Silverstone 2012

      The two compounds rule is the only reasons teams use the option tire anyway. Nearly all race strategies this year involved doing a 6 lap option stint and then using primes for the rest.

      1. @lite992

        The two compounds rule is the only reasons teams use the option tire anyway. Nearly all race strategies this year involved doing a 6 lap option stint and then using primes for the rest.

        That doesn’t bother me at all: soft tyres for qualifying and hard tyres for racing, as it should be ;)

        Maybe banishing that rule would encourage Pirelli to make tyres which were closer in performance, which would be more interesting from a strategic perspective in my opinion.

  11. A very welcome change after they have gone über-conservative in these races for the last years. Vettel will win the WDC anyway (and next years tyres will be a lot more conservative – that is good), so now give us something to be exited about for this race Pirelli

  12. F1 in 2013 in a few lines (in my view at least)…

    race :
    lap 2 – message to driver : start saving your tyres
    lap 4 – message from driver : my tyres are gone
    lap 5 – message to driver : do not overtake, leave a 3 seconds gap, we need these tyres for another 30 minutes
    victory lap : YES, thank you boys, thank you, we did it, YES !

    podium :
    – booooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

    press conference after the race :
    RBR : no, it was not easy to win this race, absolutely not. it was very very hard
    FER : we need to understand why can’t we understand why the car is not fast enough…. also in another news do you know about our wind tunnel ?
    McL : we have some updates coming sometime this year and it will give us a huuuuuuuge boost
    LOT : I’m sexy and I know it
    MERC : we are still trying to figure it out who is the boss in our team. after we figure that out we… err… what was the question again ?
    SAUB : we’re fast, very fast… we’re broke. do you have some money ? yeah ? only with a driver included ? deal.

    drivers in 2013 :
    the majority : Vettel is not fast, his car is
    VET : I can’t type his finger here, sorry
    WEB : **** this ****, I’m out
    ALO : samurai !
    MAS : I’m only helping myself becau… **** ! who put this wall here ?
    HAM : I have no idea, are they together or not ?
    ROS : I’m faster, let me pass
    RAI : shut up and let me drive
    GRO : don’t hit anyone in the first corner, don’t hit anyone in the first corner, don’t hit anyone in the first corner, don’t hit anyone in the first corner, don’t hit anyone in the first corner, don’t hit anyone in the first corner…
    BUT : the car is terrible
    PER : oh look, a car in front me. chaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarge !

    end of F1 race weekend.

    PS. sorry, I could not help myself once I started with the tyres… :)

    1. Hilarious :D

    2. Excellent summary, deserves more views, COTW perhaps! @oji

  13. Whatever

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