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Thoughts about the new Pirellis so far? (14 posts)

Topic tags: F1, Ferrari, Lotus, pirelli, racing, RBR

Viewing post 1 to 14 (14 total posts)

JB said 3 months, 4 weeks ago:

After reading the roundup article… does anybody else feel that although it may be good for racing in a way… Pirellis are being to much of a protagonist?? I mean, I thought F1 was all about engineering and developments… I feel it´s just sad that rubber is being a determinig factor. Not cool at all…

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AdrianMorse said 3 months, 4 weeks ago:

I think we should wait and see how the tyres behave in a race situation. I have followed the timing of testing so far, and sometimes I see very consistent stints, sometimes stints in which times go up by a second a lap, so basically I don’t what teams and drivers are doing yet. And if we’re going to have a few surprise winners again then I won’t mind tyres being the talking point in the early season.

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JB said 3 months, 3 weeks ago:

@adrianmorse

I think we should wait and see how the tyres behave in a race situation.

I agree with this but,

I won’t mind tyres being the talking point in the early season.

Not with this… The inconsistency in the tyres is not good… and gives the tyre supplier too much protagonism… The teams and the drivers need the attention… not the tyres. Although 2012 was entertaining, the begining of last season was utterly frustrating.

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Mads said 3 months, 3 weeks ago:

@catracho504
Well, the rubber isn’t going to make the difference. They all run on the same tyres, so it will be about making a car that works the best and get along well with the tyres.
But I agree with you that the start of 2012 was too much. But it was the first time we have seen that happen. Now we have seen it happen and it was amazing, but I don’t want a repeat of it. I thought that 2012 was a lot better in the later mid-season where teams sort of understood things with the tyres, but there was still a decent amount of pitstops, and there was still the chance that someone could fail at making the tyres work, so there was an element of unpredictability, but it wasn’t too much and not in every race. I think that was close to ideal, and I hope that the teams are quicker at understanding the tyres this year so they will get to that point sooner.

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tmekt said 3 months, 3 weeks ago:

Tyres always have a big effect on how fast a certain car is because they are the things that connect the car to the track. They are also exatly the same for all teams (assuming there isn’t some big Ferrari conspiracy).

I really don’t mind Pirelli’s approach of making them last less time. In a sense, it would be the same thing if they lasted for example two race distances – only different aspects of cars’ performance would be more critical than now. It’s still an engineering challenge to make the best use of what you have.

Actually, the only thing I don’t like about the current tyres are the ugly, big pieces of rubber that you see on the track after a race (especially if the super-soft compound was used).

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JamieFranklinF1 said 3 months, 3 weeks ago:

Well, technically if everyone hated the Pirelli tyres, they’d be more of an antagonist than a protagonist, but that’s neither here nor there :P

I actually like the way Pirelli are doing things, and I’m not worried about this season. Teams will always complain about tyre wear, but it’s usually not that bad, especially pre-season statements. The way this season’s tyres have been created, I don’t think that we will get a repeat of last season. There is a wider operating range, and thus there won’t be such a ‘lottery’ of people lucking into the tyres working properly. Yes, the tyres may degrade faster, but I think that just adds another challenge for both the team and driver, which I like. If a team builds a car, which is hard on its tyres, then that is their fault. The same goes for the drivers, a driver should be fast, of course, but tyre management should be another essential part of a driver’s skill set.

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JB said 3 months, 3 weeks ago:

@mads

Well, the rubber isn’t going to make the difference. They all run on the same tyres, so it will be about making a car that works the best and get along well with the tyres.
But I agree with you that the start of 2012 was too much. But it was the first time we have seen that happen. Now we have seen it happen and it was amazing, but I don’t want a repeat of it. I thought that 2012 was a lot better in the later mid-season where teams sort of understood things with the tyres, but there was still a decent amount of pitstops, and there was still the chance that someone could fail at making the tyres work, so there was an element of unpredictability, but it wasn’t too much and not in every race. I think that was close to ideal, and I hope that the teams are quicker at understanding the tyres this year so they will get to that point sooner.

I have to agree with you completely on this comment! I agree that the latter part of 2012 was awesome but I just couldn´t stand the first races…. too much of a lottery. I just hope that they don´t turn out to be the defining factor sort of what happened to Alonso in Canada las year… For sure, they gambled and lost but that was cruel and no other team should have that happen to them…

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Keith Collantine said 3 months, 3 weeks ago:

Grosjean did a race distance with four pit stops today. That’s one more than the typical strategy at last year’s Spanish Grand Prix.

Taking into account the less than ideal conditions here and the fact teams have three months development between now and that race, I don’t think there’s cause for concern.

Button and Vergne had some interesting things to say about them this evening and they’ll be on the site later.

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JB said 3 months, 3 weeks ago:

@keithcollantine

Grosjean did a race distance with four pit stops today. That’s one more than the typical strategy at last year’s Spanish Grand Prix.

That is a scary thought though…. with “normal” temperatures, shouldn´t the tyres last even less??
Thanks for the heads up on the tyre´s behaviour… it´s great to have one of our own report directly to us!! *thumbs up*

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tmekt said 3 months, 3 weeks ago:

@catracho504

Not necessarily.

Warmer temperatures can mean more grip (tyres heat better) and more grip can mean less graining (as the car doesn’t slide around as much). …I’m not sure of the exact terminology

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Lin1876 said 3 months, 3 weeks ago:

Let’s see how they do in the first few races. I’m very sympathetic to the opinion that the tyres are too much of a lottery, and I was hoping for a slightly more conservative approach from Pirelli this season. Not a return to Bridgestone’s last season, but a halfway house of sorts.

However, as has been pointed out, the tyres are the same for everyone, and managing them is a skill to be mastered like any other. If it’s still a lottery after 5-6 races, I’ll be more worried.

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Max Jacobson said 3 months, 3 weeks ago:

A characteristic of the Pirelli’s intended for this year is that there is more thermal degradation than graining; we may only see that coming into effect when track temperatures increase though.

I don’t think there is an immediate concern that we may have tyres which last all of a lap before the laptimes increase exponentially, after all the conditions aren’t representative of the calendar in general and this is after all only the end of test two – there is much to learn yet! I quite liked the influence of the tyres around the mid season last year, so if we could have a repeat of that I would be very grateful!

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Still camileon said 3 months, 3 weeks ago:

Its possibly that if the tyres become such i major part of F1 then teams will end up looking for drivers with the ability to preserve them,This cannot be right as all the entertainment will be removed over a period of time, somebody driving a road car who cant afford to replace his tyres might brake earlier or go around a roundabout slower but if a F1 driver starts a race this way then we all suffer, if you want F1 to improve then let two tyre manufacturers supply tyres and let the teams decide at each race witch manufacturer to choose for that F1 weekend.

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Prisoner Monkeys said 3 months, 3 weeks ago:

if you want F1 to improve then let two tyre manufacturers supply tyres and let the teams decide at each race witch manufacturer to choose for that F1 weekend

Last time we had that, Bridgestone developed tyres for Ferrari, Michelin developed tyres for Renault, and everyone else just had to take what they were given. As a result, Ferrari and Renault were the only competitive teams.

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