Vettel attacks Pirelli over safety of tyres

2013 Monaco Grand Prix

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Sebastian Vettel launched a stinging attack on Pirelli’s tyres in the build-up to the Monaco Grand Prix, describing them as unsafe.

“I think we’ve seen a couple of occasions this year where, I don’t want to talk bad about people, but they have to do a better job on safety grounds,” said Vettel.

The reigning world champion said the tyre delaminations suffered by drivers in recent races had not been caused by debris, as Pirelli have claimed.

“We saw that people suffered the tyre, the surface, the tread delaminating and blowing up,” he said. “Fortunately nothing happened but it’s not because drivers drove over debris it’s because the tyre’s simply not good enough and that can’t be safe.”

Pirelli initially blamed debris for the tyre failures suffered by some drivers in Spain and Bahrain.

Vettel warned against the potential dangers of a driver suffering a tyre failure: “So I think there’s certain thing we need to be careful with because the last thing we want is a big off.

“You can imagine here, end of straight, down to the harbour chicane, you have a tyre coming off, I think it’s something none of us want to see.”

Red Bull have repeatedly criticised Pirelli’s latest tyres since the beginning of the season, saying they do not allow drivers to push to the limits of their car.

The team renewed their criticism after the Spanish Grand Prix, in which most drivers had to make four pit stops, more than Pirelli’s intended maximum of three. Pirelli initially announced plans to change the tyres for performance and safety reasons but the FIA told them they could only do so on safety grounds.

Vettel also added he was concerned about the quantity of marbles produced by the rubber.

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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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69 comments on “Vettel attacks Pirelli over safety of tyres”

  1. Personally I think its more part of a power struggle and a bit of pushing for bigger / smaller changes dependant on what side of the spectrum teams are.
    Red Bull and Mercedes certainly wanting a change, Lotus and Ferrari clearly wanting to keep it as much as it is.

    I cannot but think Bernie is happy to have Sky push the pro-change agenda too a bit, so he himself does not have to weigh in too much.

    Lets not forget, that we still have no tyres for next year (Pirelli seems to have a contract pre-signed with some teams including REd BUll though), nor do we have a Concorde Agreement, and the FIA could in theory do what they want with the rules.

    1. @bascb

      I think its more part of a power struggle and a bit of pushing for bigger / smaller changes dependent on what side of the spectrum teams are.

      Most likely, though you have to wonder if all the failures really have been down to debris. Vergne’s, for example, probably was, but it seems unlikely Massa would have two debris-related failures in one race.

      1. Yeah, these tyres certainly are not all that stable (but Pirelli already stated they will react to that). On the other hand, the tyres not deflating and being shredded to pieces makes it far less dangerous than a complete blowup.

      2. @keithcollantine – In the build-up to the Spanish Grand Prix, James Allen put forward the theory that the problem was a manufacturing fault that had produced a poor-quality batch. It would explain why most – if not all – of the failres have been limited to a single compound, and seemingly randomly distributed along the grid.

        1. But then you’d think that Pirelli would fall back on that and say something to the effect that they had a temporary quality control issue, there was a poor-quality batch, and they have gone to great pains to rectify that. ie. no change needed to the specs themselves of the current generation of tires, we’ll just make sure we make them well.

      3. it seems unlikely Massa would have two debris-related failures in one race

        Wasn’t it Massa who had two suspension breaks in one weekend a couple of years ago? Perhaps he has a slightly wrong driving technique that makes him more vulnerable to such risks.

        1. Something completely different as he drove over the high kerbs of India, wich his suspension couldn’t handle.

          1. Well that could imply that Massa likes to ride the kerbs a bit too much and thus in fact explain the tyre failures.

    2. Sky are well down the pecking order in terms of game changing opinions, and would likely just be the commentators own views rather than a company pushing an agenda.

      But it is a power struggle at the moment but glad they are staying the same, you can’t be changing it every few because favoritism will be obvious.

      1. That’s nonsense @georgetuk. Through Sky its possible to highlight the situation and try and influence the fans, and what the bosses see. Pirelli bosses are unlikely to be happy if they are seen to be providing bad tyres, its putting a bit of pressure on them.

      2. Yes, but effectively Sky speak for the whole of Britain at least (I’m not sure how they are reacting on Sky Italia etc.). So essentially that’s fan pressure, which is fairly strong if enough of it is mustered.

    3. Here is an article where German Motorsport-Total claims Pirelli already have some contracts done with several teams (Red Bull, STR, Ferrari are mentioned

      1. @bascb, please tell me McLaren have a deal with Yokohama, Lotus with Michelin, Caterham with Dunlop etc.etc. then we may see some real racing.

        1. :-) I am afraid that will not be the case @hohum

    4. “Red Bull and Mercedes certainly wanting a change, Lotus and Ferrari clearly wanting to keep it as much as it is…”

      I think Mercedes are a little more reasonable, as Toto Wolff said to Autosport:

      “If you struggle with the tyres, like we obviously do, you can’t expect the FIA to change the rules for your own benefit.

      “This is why Lotus and Ferrari don’t want the tyres to change.

      “The one critical issue is of safety. We’ve seen tyres delaminating and none of us wants to have a safety issue.

      “As long as the tyres are safe enough, I am sportsman enough to say that we should just make the car function on the tyres. The safety is my concern.”

    5. I think we’ve seen a couple of occasions this year where, I don’t want to talk bad about people, but they have to do a better job on safety grounds

      This quote should read ” I think we’ve seen a couple of occasions this year where, I don’t want to talk bad about people, but these tires haven’t suited our car and we no longer have the fasted car on the grid, they need to do better!”

  2. Will red bull really continue this nonsense until they get what they want?

    1. Why not ? It’s not like Ferrari and McLaren haven’t been crying to the FIA for the past three years everytime RBR found something in the regs…

      1. Regulations can be interpreted differently by the teams, that is not the case with these tyres. Yes pirelli has made terrible compounds, still no reason to breach the rules which clearly state the compounds cannot be changed without agreement of all teams. Red Bull is pulling the safety card now but pirelli insists every tyre had a puncture trough debris. Case closed in my opinion, shut up and improve your car, stop trying to get what you want trough backroom deals

        1. spot on mate

          “Shut up and improve your car”

        2. @force-maikel

          Touche.

          Unfortunately Red Bull fans are never going to agree with you.. no matter how strong the logic

        3. @force-maikel I can agree with everything except the safety issue: that is a genuine concern and needs fixed. Pirelli just shouldn’t have overstepped the mark on the first place!

          About the shut-up-and-get-on-with-it thing, see my comment here, second paragraph.

          1. Antonio (@antoniocorleone)
            23rd May 2013, 17:52

            On the safety issue – make your car to not eat up the tyres and make them blow. Its the same thing, back up with that huge amount of downforce and you’d be faster in a straight line speed, and easier on tyres, its as simple as that.

          2. @antoniocorleone that isn’t even an argument: the tyres shouldn’t be failing because the cars generate “too much downforce”. If you put it that way, would you also argue it was the team’s fault for having cars that were “too fast” through the banking at the 2005 USGP?

          3. Antonio (@antoniocorleone)
            24th May 2013, 0:13

            Come on, its simple, they give you the material and you build with it. Red Bull are trying to build a house starting from the roof, and after starting to build, they realize that its impossible and ask for a crane to hold the roof up in air while they make the walls etc. It was a simple example but I feel its like that and that Ferrari and Lotus have every right to feel betrayed by everyone starting from the FIA, Bernie, Pirelli… The only thing we can say to Ferrari and Lotus is CONGRATULATIONS.

    2. @force-maikel – No. They’ll certainly continue with it, but they won’t get what they want. Ferrari are probably the only team who wield enough power to force through changes like the ones Red Bull want.

  3. Vettel needs to be careful. I hope he has evidence for his claim, or he could end up in legal trouble, if Pirelli were so minded.

    1. No problem Bernie has plenty of experience in the courtrooms :-)

    2. Even Pirelli admitted that the tyres failures what more can he get as evidence.
      Does RDB and Vettel trying a change? Yes
      Are the tyres dangerous? Hell yeah, try and drive 300KM/H and one of them burst, or desintegrate?
      With these things FIA should not mess around. Also i’m sick of saying put other manufacturer doing tyres and let teams choose. These tyres end in a minute, or Ferrari and Lotus will stay with Pirelli and end up doing 4 pit stops a GP…That’s not racing, is gumbling

      1. The thing is, the tyres do not disintegrate, as opposed to what they did until the end of last year when they got punctured @hipn0tic, these tyres hold together and allow the car to safely slow down and be parked.

    3. There is a difference between an opinion from someone who has a reason to have an opinion, or someone in the street just blarring on to the public about Pirelli tyres poor safety with fake evidence. If Vettel feels unsafe, he is more than entitled to say that publically. If he TRUELY does not feel safe, he would be an idiot not to.

      1. If Vettel had made a general claim about tyres and safety I’d be inclined to agree with you. But he hasn’t – he’s made a specific claim, that Pirelli were lying about the fact that those tyre failures were caused by debris. That’s a big claim, and potentially libellous if he can’t back it up with evidence.

        1. Its up to Pirelli to prove they’re telling the truth. Not Vettel to prove they’re lying.

          And I have a sneaking suspicion Pirelli cant prove the delaminations were caused by debris. And if they were to sue a driver do you think anyones gonna support them?

    4. I think the biggest problem is this, if he is being honest, that he thinks it’s a safety problem, then it’s ok. But if he has used safety, as an excuse to get the rules changed to how he wants, then that is very bad.

      Safety, should be a sacred word that is never, ever misused. Lest it bite us back.

  4. It’s all a bit namby pamby really this tyre whining. All that should be done this year is find a more resilient way to secure the belt to the carcass and leave it at that.

    Anyway, a change in specification mid-season is not permitted under the regulations.

    Red Bull need to get their heads down and figure the tyres out like everybody else. They have the aero side absolutely nailed on far better than the rest of the teams but apparently with certain mechanical aspects they come up wanting. Well, tough! That’s the way the mop flops as they say, suck it up and get cracking with some solutions.

    I have to say that all this “ooh safety this, ooh tyres that” is at odds with the extreme sports style gung ho brand image that Red Bull likes to peddle. Perhaps they need to reconsider their brand slogan, “Red Bull Makes you overly concerned about safety”.

    Its the old saying, if you can’t take the heat stay out of the kitchen. Come on Red Bull, we all know that you know better than this!!

    1. I don’t see a major problem with them pushing for changes: it’s not as if it hasn’t happened before so the “moaning” part is a bog-standard issue, so really it’s just the fact it affects the others that’s the problem. In that sense though they can’t be far wrong: Pirelli themselves wanted to change the compounds to meet with their 3-stop maximum target but were essentially blocked by the FIA. The rule which states they can only change the compounds with the agreement of all teams I’m guessing can be circumvented through certain clauses (i.e. safety or Bernie Ecclestone) so that couldn’t have been done without justification.

      About Red Bull just sitting complaining about it though, I really strongly disagree with that argument (and it’s not just you @coefficient) – you do realise the people who speak to the media aren’t building the cars? I would bet my house on the fact the people in the factory will be working hard on the problem; there seems to be this mistaken assumption that since they are complaining to get changes which may suit them they evidently aren’t doing anything the issue with the current situation. That’s pretty laughable – they didn’t win last year’s and the two year’s before that WCC by sitting on their *****!

      1. so really it’s just the fact it affects the others that’s the problem

        You’re right. Vettel has always been a really thoughtful and noble person. Him wanting to change tyres for the rest of the grid is a selfless act and a sign of good sportsmanship.

        Pirelli themselves wanted to change the compounds to meet with their 3-stop maximum target but were essentially blocked by the FIA. The rule which states they can only change the compounds with the agreement of all teams I’m guessing can be circumvented through certain clauses (i.e. safety or Bernie Ecclestone) so that couldn’t have been done without justification.

        Exactly. Its the rules isn’t it? If it was such a huge safety concern, you would expect Pirrelli to get on it anyways. Why do Red Bull have to start campaigning so strongly for change? Do you actually think safety is a bigger concern for Red Bull than it is for other teams on the grid?

        The fact is Red Bull wants to change the tyres to suit its car better… and they will continue to pressure Pirrelli into doing exactly that.

        1. @todfod I do believe one of the first things Vettel did after he won the title in 2012 was congratulate Alonso on his season. They are all egoists, but that doesn’t mean they can’t show sportsmanship.

          Exactly. Its the rules isn’t it? If it was such a huge safety concern, you would expect Pirrelli to get on it anyways. Why do Red Bull have to start campaigning so strongly for change? Do you actually think safety is a bigger concern for Red Bull than it is for other teams on the grid?

          No I don’t: where did I say otherwise?

          1. @Vettel1
            I am not so sure he congratulated Alonso right after he won the title in 2012… I do remember his comments where he was saying he and the team were concentrating on themselves and not looking at what others were doing…. I could be wrong but I just cant remember any statement from vettel where he congratulated Alonso.. It was more like “yeah he drove well but we did what we had to and won the title”…

          2. @puneethvb very possibly: I’ll have a look through the archives, I just seem to recall him congratulating Alonso (or it might be me remembering I congratulated him first and foremost, I don’t know)!

            One thing he did say a few days after the win was the “dirty tricks” comment, which I think was in retaliation to Ferrari’s very public “requested clarification” which kind of soured the great sportsmanship they too had originally showed.

  5. He’s right, and Pirelli addresed the situation and are working on it. It is dangerous. The tyres cannot delaminate like that, and it’s happening quite often.

    Not sure if it’s an “attack” to Pirelli though… sounds incredibly reasonable. Though coming from a guy whose team has been critizicing the tyres might sounds suspicious, I think on safety grounds, about the failures and not degradation, he’s right.

    1. Yes but he’s only saying it because they want both

      1. @force-maikel

        Sure, but that doesn’t mean he’s not right about it. It is a dangerous matter.

        1. OmarR-Pepper (@)
          23rd May 2013, 15:33

          @fer-no65 I never thought I could have agreed with you, :P but yes, safety is important, and even when somebody stated that the tyres are “at least” not blowing like what happened to Buemi years ago, a delamination or marbling can end up badly in Monaco, especially in Monaco where a little mistake shoots drivers against the walls. Ask Perez

          1. @omarr-pepper why did you think that? also, we’ve agreed before :P!

          2. OmarR-Pepper (@)
            23rd May 2013, 19:46

            @fer-no65 oh sorry! I thought you were tifoso60 or something… I’m getting a little confused without the avatars (but if you have a Gravatar account you can update one

  6. From this AMuS (German) article its pretty clear why we are hearing teams speak up now: Pirelli will give them their proposal of what they want to change today, and it needs all teams to agree to be able to change anything.

    Trotzdem wird sich Pirelli schwertun, die geplante Änderung durchzuboxen. Force India ist dagegen. “Wir werden keiner Änderung zustimmen, egal wie sie ausfällt. Da Pirelli Einstimmigkeit braucht, wird sich gar nichts ändern”, bestätigt Sportdirektor Otmar Szafnauer.

    Seine Begründung: “Wir haben unser Auto anhand der Reifenspezifikationen gebaut, die uns Pirelli am 1.September 2012 gegeben hat. Der Tausch des Stahlrings gegen einen Kevlar-Ring ändert die Dynamik des Reifens. Das könnte einige Teams bevorzugen, andere nicht. Wir sehen nicht ein, dass Pirelli Eingriffe vornimmt, nur weil ein paar Teams mit den Reifen Probleme haben. Sollen sie andere Autos bauen.”

    The change itself is about using the Kevlar side-wall structure, that was used last year. It does mean that the form of the tyre would not change, but it would have some (be it small) effect on how the tyres behave dynamically.

    I guess Red Bull (through Vettel) highlighting danger/safety they are trying to get the others to agree to the change then. But its clear FI does not see any danger.

    1. A fast translation of that BQ:
      Despite that, Pirelli will have a tough job with pushing this change through. Force India is against it. “We won’t support any change, no matter what way it goes. As Pirelli need unanimous consent, nothing will change”, confirms Sporting Director Otmar Szafnauer.

      His reasons: “We have built our car according to the Tyre-specification, that Pirelli gave us at September 1st 2012. Exchanging of the Steel-ring for a Kevlar-Ring changes the dynamics of the tyre. That might help some teams, and others not. We see no reason for Pirelli to make changes, only because a couple of teams have trouble with the tyres. Should build different cars then.”

      Don’t you just love pitlane politics

  7. For information, here’s the question Vettel was asked:

    Pirelli said after the race [in Spain] they wanted to make changes to the tyres to reduce the number of pit stops. The FIA then said you can only change on safety grounds. Is that the end of the matter as far as you’re concerned for this season, you’ve given up hope that there might be change?

  8. I see this clown is keeping up his act!

    The way I understand the delaminations issue, is that delaminations aren’t actually dangerous at all. They are the side-effect of the construction that has a goal to prevent a tire from deflating fast in case of a puncture, therefor preventing an actually dangerous situation. With these tires, you can have a puncture, but it will be a slow puncture, that would allow you to remain in control of the car and return to pits.

    1. is that delaminations aren’t actually dangerous at all

      They can actually be very dangerous as those bits flying off the tyre are quite heavy & have a lot of energy as there flying through the air.

      We have seen the bits of tyre cause damage to the cars already be it suspension, bodywork or the brake cooling, Imagine what would happen if a part of that tyre was to hit the driver behind or even someone at trackside (Marshall or spectator).

      Also consider the dangers of a failure happening in a very fast corner, That would immediately cause the car to go off track & if its a place with not a lot of run-off thats going to be a big accident.

      And what about the prospect of the failure causing damage to the car which isn’t spotted, A damaged brake duct (As Verge suffered in Spain after his failure) could cause a total braking failure which again could put you in the wall.

      1. Lol, given that sometimes even just driving on a painted line can catch a driver out, I think it is easy to only consider a delamination as potentially highly dangerous, as you point out GT_Racer with some good examples.

  9. Ah, I see, the FIA say no change unless its on safety grounds and,,,hey presto, Vettel says we need a change on safety grounds.
    just bloody drive, you cant have everything , you already have a number two driver to assist you ;-)

    1. What should he then do when asked about it (see Keith’s tweet), stay silent, give a “no comment” answer or what?

      1. If thats the question, it was his choice to now raise the issue of safety, did he previously raise safety as an issue….
        Pirelli have said nothing about safety, they have mentioned trying to reduce the number of pitstops.
        He could have said anything, I find it curious that he has talked about safety when the team are seemingly desperate to have the tyres changed.
        Just saying.

  10. All carefully crafted arguments after the FIA says Pirelli can only change tires for safety reasons. RedBull simply changed their wording to try and get their way. The organization spends a lot of money to be on the winning side of every sport they engage in and doesn’t like to lose. This is just lobbying via the language of the FIA.

  11. It’s a real shame the super genius Adrian Newey couldn’t solve their problems for them. Thinking of Newey, he’s been very quiet this year.

  12. And then his fans are wondering why so many people don’t like him and don’t have much respect for him. I’ve never seen someone moan like this about something that is the same component for all. I’ve never heard a team, even Ferrari or McLaren at the heights of their rivalry, moan this much and lobby this hard for something. If Red Bull is so worried about our poor sport and fans, they wouldn’t try so hard to give it a bad publicity in the media.

  13. Is Vettel flat-out accusing Pirelli of lying about the cause of those tire de-laminations, or am I reading this wrong?

    I dont blame him for having some suspicions about those incidents, but I can’t imagine that Pirelli will want to continue their F1 involvement if 3x WDCs go around telling the media that they lied about the safety of their product (with no evidence to substantiate the claim, as far as I can tell).

    1. @hallard I’m pretty sure Pirelli only made those claims in Bahrain: they admitted they needed to change them afterwards. So really he’s only continuing that idea.

  14. I only came here to wonder if that Hitlerstache on Vettel was real, or just a shadow. Thoughts?

    1. I don’t think its about safety at all, and force India are the only ones I’ve seen saying the same as I have been, and I agree with them. Pirelli changing the sidewall structure back to 2012 spec on safety grounds is ridiculous and I hope it gets blocked. The sidewall movement in the 2013 spec tyres is the reason for red bulls performance problems, its also the reason for force India and ferraris good form, they’ve built a car out of their understanding of this sidewall movement, red bulls car looks the same as last year from the driver back, so I don’t think they felt the need to change anything. Obviously they now look very silly, and they want the tyres their design works with. I, like force India, think changing the sidewall back to 2012 spec is wrong, and will play into the hands of teams that haven’t done a good job of designing their car to work with the 2013 tyres. As far as the difference goes its nothing to do with wear rates and everything to do with the way the sidewall flexes. Ferrari experience similar wear rates to red bull, and they don’t want tyre spec changes. It’s because ferrari, like force India, have radically changed their car from last year, and the changes are mostly because of the way the new tyres influence the aero, particularly at the rear. Shut up and fix your car red bull, instead of hoping the tyres will be changed to suit your outdated design.

      1. Sorry that wasn’t meant to be in reply to anyone

        1. @hwkii
          Haha, I see it! That’s awesome actually. :p

  15. It’s not like SV is saying anything ‘way off the mark’ here. There’s nothing unreasonable about what he is saying. I realize that much of the commentary over many topics here in the last couple of weeks has been about Red Bull trying to gain an advantage. And my question…why wouldn’t they? The tires are obviously a big issue. Right in front of our very eyes. There’s nothing hidden here. Forgetting about safety issues for a second, many fans/drivers/teams don’t like this type of tire affected racing because drivers can’t push their cars and are having to run to delta times, so as you watch a race you don’t know who is having what kind of day until the last handful of laps when we can see if or how team’s strategies played out, and in fact one gets the feeling that the planned strategies were barely able to be used.

    I don’t blame Red Bull for being verbal about this. Verbage is the least expensive method by far in any team’s toolbox to improve. Just because they are being the most vocal, and of course come off as though they only want to benefit themselves, which I’m pretty sure is their job…for their sponsors, fans, and themselves…it’s why they’re there….doesn’t make them evil or whiny.

    And if the tires are changed, it’s not like Red Bull is going to get to submit the specs they would like to see and it will be so. Nor is there any guarantee that Ferrari and Lotus won’t benefit from changes. This is a case of the tires being problematic for everybody. I doubt Ferrari and Lotus love these tires, but what they do love is seeing Red Bull handcuffed for a change. So I think it is a bit disingenuine of Ferrari and Lotus being fine with the tires, as I say other than they are enjoying seeing Red Bull less fine with them than others. The fans don’t seem to be fine with them and Ferrari and Lotus don’t seem to care as long as the reigning Champs are suffering. Suffering….lol they’re leading.

    It’s all well and good for the teams who are doing a little better on these tires to claim they did a better job with their chassis to adapt to the tires, but I doubt that last September when the teams got their specs for this gen of tires they expected this type of racing. And delaminations. Did they design their chassis’ so tires wouldn’t delaminate? Ask Massa that question.

    It’s a difficult situation now as has been pointed out by Hemberey…changing them makes it look like they are pandering to Red Bull…yet to me, the tires need changing nonetheless…for safety…and because the show sucks on these tires.

    Bottom line for me…I’m not an SV fan nor Red Bull, but I’m not against them either…I’m indifferent, and if anything I suppose I wouldn’t mind seeing a change at the top after 3 years of RBR, but I certainly don’t blame them for using the most inexpensive method they can…verbage…to try to affect their future. Ferrari have used extra veto power on rule changes plus extra millions upon millions given to them, to affect their own destiny…Red Bull is calling for changes that should actually benefit everybody…and the racing for the fans. It only appears like changes would favour Red Bull because it means they might be a little less handcuffed by the tires if the tires were changed…isn’t it still up to Ferrari, Lotus, et al to adapt if new tires are brought in? If they’re so good at it? The racing sucks and might even be extra-dangerous but Ferrari and Lotus is fine with that as long as they benefit. How is that any different or any less whiny (if we’re going to use words like that) than SV/RBR using their words to try to achieve their goals and those of their fans and sponsors who are paying the big bucks? Ferrari and Lotus are ‘whining’ for no change and I think we all lose from that. We have all lost something from this season because of F1’s meddling too much in gadgety racing and right now that meddling as gone overboard and backfired. Lesson learned…less on the meddling please. Let’s get back to driver vs. driver.

  16. You have Vettel among those lobbying for new tyres.

    You have Bernie and the FIA saying safety can be the only reason to change the tyres.

    Vettel and others use “safety” in their lobbying…

    Who here caught this in the interview?
    Prost: “…In our time, if you want to compare, we had to take care of the brakes and gearbox and fuel consumption and obviously also tyres because sometimes we had to be careful of the tyres, but the regulations were also very different and at one stage we had three types of rubber and we could make changes and I very often ran hard tyres on the left and soft tyres on the front. I even raced in Las Vegas in ’81 with qualifying tyres on the front, but that means we cannot compare.”

    Ok… What would it take to change the regs to allow any compound on any wheel at any time? If, say… Mercedes wanted to run a four-stop strategy with Softs on the front and Mediums on the rear, could they push all race? What about the other teams?

    Why isn’t changing the gimmicky regulations on the table at this point? Just tell Pirelli to bring every compound and let the teams sort out what they want to run.

  17. I scan all the comments and it is very easy to see that quite a few people think that Red Bull is complaining simply because they don’t feel they have the fastest car. Maybe that is true, but the argument on safety is still a valid point that needs to be addressed by Pirelli.
    It only takes ONE moment for a tire to blow up and cause a major accident. Imagine for a moment the cars going into the first corner and leaders tire blows up.. I personally don’t want to see that kind of carnage. I admit that is a worst case scenario, and maybe a little bit dramatic. Racing is dangerous and anything can happen at any moment on the track, but to be using these tires is basically like asking the drivers to play Russian roulette.
    I am a Red Bull fan, but I would be willing to see them lose this season if it means switching to a safer tire for ALL the drivers and teams.
    I am making a prediction. With these current tires, I believe that we will see the safety car at least 5 times or more on Sunday.

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