McLaren don’t expect Pirelli to impose tyre stint limits

2013 Indian Grand Prix

Posted on

| Written by

McLaren do not believe Pirelli will impose limits on how long each tyre can be used for in future races.

F1’s official tyre supplier said it was “disappointed” some teams ran longer stints using its tyres than they had been advised to during the Indian Grand Prix.

Pirelli began imposing restrictions on how teams use its tyres following the failures seen during the British Grand Prix. But McLaren sporting director Sam Michael said during a Vodafone McLaren Mercedes phone-in that he doesn’t expect those to go any further.

“In terms of going forward, normal pressure and camber and tyre blanket limits apply, and they’ll keep applying those,” said Michael. “I don’t see any change to that in the short term.”

“I don’t see them imposing a mileage limit. Having said that if they came and discussed it with us and they needed to that would be a different case.”

Michael questioned how far Pirelli had gone to make teams adhere to a mileage limit in India. “I think perhaps something more’s been made of it than McLaren were aware of,” he said.

“In terms of McLaren there was no limit imposed or attempted imposition of any limit by Pirelli,” he added.

“So although that was something I did hear in the pit lane from other journalists, etc…, I never had any comms from Pirelli, through to me or to anyone else in McLaren, to impose any mileage limit. It was not a proposition at all. I’m not really sure why that got momentum.

“There might have been different situations at other teams, of course I know that everyone treats their tyres differently, but that was definitely not a discussion that Pirelli had with McLaren. Therefore it didn’t really happen, as such.”

2013 Indian Grand Prix

Browse all 2013 Indian Grand Prix articles

Image © McLaren/Hoch Zwei

Author information

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...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

9 comments on “McLaren don’t expect Pirelli to impose tyre stint limits”

  1. Well at least we know this is a lie. If I know about it…you know that the teams were aware. Pirelli wouldn’t be stupid enough NOT to tell them after the teams messed up the tires so much in Silverstone.

  2. I will file it under “discussions ongoing” for now.

  3. If they want it to be applied at all they will have to impose a rule under safety grounds. It is no different to teams pushing the boundaries in terms of tyre pressures and cambers, they will ignore any of Pirelli’s ‘suggestions’ if they can gain any sort of advantage. Pirelli must know this and their ‘suggested’ maximum laps limits in India were just to cover themselves in case of another blow up a la Perez in Korea (due to wear and a flat spot).

  4. Because the teams would ignore them.

  5. Michael Brown (@)
    31st October 2013, 13:59

    When will Pirelli stop ruining F1?

    1. When they are asked to make proper tires?

  6. If they’re going to impose a mileage limit on tires AND enforce these limits, then the FIA/FOC/Bernie should have them make a more durable tire.

    1. Exactly. The only reason limits have been talked about so much this year is because of the tires Pirelli has been mandated to make. It would seem next year this will be less of an issue as Pirelli will be asked to make tires that can handle the turbo torque era and tires that needn’t be, at least initially, so much the story of F1 as they have been made to be over the last 3 years.

  7. I’m of the opinion that whatever Pirelli are asked to provide, the one thing which they should do inherently is provide tyres which do not become unsafe just because they are worn. If they are still usable on the track, tyres shouldn’t be at a significantly greater risk of failing. Tyres operating on the correct corner of the car and within set camber and pressure limits I can fully understand.

Comments are closed.