Pirelli’s Monza tyre choice ‘good for the show’

2015 Italian Grand Prix

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Pirelli has been praised for selecting a softer mix of tyres for this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix.

Formula One’s official tyre supplier has previously opted for the hardest available compounds for Monza, the track which sees the highest top speeds of the year. However for this year it will bring the soft tyre instead of the hard, in addition to the medium as usual.

Sauber’s head of track engineering Giampaolo Dall’Ara approves of the change. “the medium and the soft are a way more sensible choice than the medium and hard we have had for years,” he said.

“They will open up new scenarios and the show will benefit from such a choice.”

Teams have normally opted for one-stop tyre strategies at Monza, where making a pit stop carries a greater time penalty than at other, slower circuits.

However Pirelli also experienced two high-speed tyre failures during the previous race weekend at Spa-Francorchamps, where the soft and medium tyres were also used.

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    20 comments on “Pirelli’s Monza tyre choice ‘good for the show’”

    1. Monza, the track where overtaking is arguably the easiest on the entire calender, does not really need softer tyres if you ask me. However, it does create an opportunity for the inevitable casualties in the first chicane.

      1. @xtwl Monza has not been an easy place to overtake for years. The fact that over the last 17 years, 13 races have been won from pole position back this.

        Even DRS isn’t as effective, becuase there’s just too little drag to begin with.

        1. @fer-no65 Or the fastest driver was just simply ahead already. Good qualy pace usually transforms in good race pace at Monza. There have been plenty of drivers slicing through the field in recent years. One good entry in the Parabolica and a proper out-braking into T1 is not one of the hardest overtakes these drivers have to do.

          1. This. Let’s not fool ourselves, Lewis is very likely to just walk away with most of the races really. He should have the shortest odds by far.

          2. @xtwl good point, so chosing the softer tyre is good news for them then since it could spice things up, and that’s what they are aiming for.

    2. Pirelli really can’t win.

      1. Too true – the drivers were complaining last year that Pirelli’s tyre choice was overconservative for a circuit where wear has traditionally been low and wanted Pirelli to bring softer compounds to the track. However, when they bow to the wishes of the drivers and bring them the compounds they want, the public then moans about the choice before the first session has even taken place.

        1. However, when they bow to the wishes of the drivers and bring them the compounds they want

          Which there not doing, The drivers want tyres which allow them to push, Which don’t fall off a cliff or explode for no reason & which ar edesigned for pure performance rather than artificially engineered to fall to pieces therefore preventing drivers from pushing.

          These tyres are crap & have been since 2011, Not really blaming pirelli just this ridiculous ‘for the show’ nonsense.

          1. My comments with regards to last year related to the fact that drivers were complaining that Pirelli was overconservative when they brought the medium and hard tyres, leading to a longer warm up time than they wanted.

            Last year the tyres were not limiting the performance of the drivers, as the data from the race showed they actually had a negative delta (i.e. the reduction in performance due to wear was lower than the benefits from a reduction in fuel weight). For all the complaints, I would not be surprised if the same thing happens again this year and the tyres are actually not that much of a limiting factor – overheating brakes have traditionally been more of an issue at Monza than the tyres.

      2. Not if they keep their current antics up! “good for the show”? How about “good for racing”? When someone’s priorities are wrong it is hard for them to do win.

    3. I wonder how much did Ferrari lobby for a tyre choice that suits them better.

      That’s a (yet another) problem of the compunds rules, the politics behind it. Another reason to have each compound available for every GP and let teams choose. Of course, we need tyres that don’t explode due to wear first.

      1. +1! Although without all the politics we wouldn’t spend so much time talking about Pirelli, Bernie etc and their egos would be sad.

    4. I’m getting real tired of all this ‘For the show’ crap.

      Look where its got us, Crap looking cars, Crap circuits, Crap corners, Crap tyres, Crap like DRS creating crap highway passes & cheese tyres that don’t allow drivers to push which creates crap racing.

      I really wish they woudl drop all this artificial crap & just get back to some proper racing!

      1. Nick (@theawesomefish)
        31st August 2015, 15:25

        I’m glad you posted this sentiment, because it would have been riddled with profanities had I done it.

    5. I did no expect this after SPA but good on you Pirelli to not bend under the pressure and do something hastly and conservative. At least Pirelli belives the tyres are up for it so lets go race.

      1. +1 @rethla it’s good news. Very often the most interesting races have been the ones preceded by plenty of fretting about the options.

      2. @rethla, No, this has nothing to do with SPA. Pirelli announces tire choice weeks in advance. Teams will have done preparation and simulations based on the tires announced. It is too late to chance. Probably only a real crisis would allow them to.

    6. I hope that this year, the Softs take the cars at least till 370 kmph.

    7. “They will open up new scenarios and the show will benefit from such a choice.”

      Question is do teams dare to use alternative strategies now they know that they get the full blame of Pirelli if anything goes wrong with the tires even if they stay within the maximum stint lenght..

    8. I can imagine that… :DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

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