No changes to tyres this year: Pirelli

F1 Fanatic round-up

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In the round-up: Pirelli say they won’t change the tyre compounds this year as they don’t want to risk favouring a particular team.

Links

Top F1 links from the past 24 hours:

Pirelli won’t alter 2012 tyres (ESPN)

Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery: “We could have done some changes mid-season this year, but having a season with teams so close together we felt that any changes we made could backfire because maybe one team would find that the change would be better suited to them and may give them an advantage, so we couldn’t do that this year.”

Ricciardo confident of new STR deal (Autosport)

“It’s always very late and since I started with the Red Bull junior team, the earliest news I got was November. If it comes before that, I would be [surprised].”

Hungary race highlights video (F1)

Even in highlights form this was a less than thrilling race.

Desert Islands Discs (BBC)

F1 heroes including Jackie Stewart, Alain Prost, Graham Hill, Jack Brabham and Jim Clark interviewed on their lives and favourite types of music.

Tweets

Comment of the day

Girts is sceptical about local reports of a Grand Prix in Latvia:

A traditional April Fools’ Day joke in my country among the sports journalists is the announcement of an ‘upcoming’ Latvian Grand Prix. However, in the latest issue of the business magazine Kapitals (‘Capital’, the local analogue of The Economist) it is argued that an F1 race in the streets of Riga would be the most profitable global sporting event that one could theoretically organise in Latvia.

What is more, the authors of the article have had a chance to talk to Bernie Ecclestone (at least that’s what they claim) and he has praised the Latvian economy and said that he would be ready to invest in the race himself, similarly as he did with the London Grand Prix.

While it’s still highly unlikely that we will see an F1 race in Latvia over the next 10 or even 20 years, it’s interesting to note that this is the first time ever when some more or less serious analysis of such a possibility has appeared. It’s also noteworthy that ‘readiness to invest in new races’ seems to have become Bernie’s new PR strategy.
Girts

From the forum

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Matthew McMahon, Penelope Pitstop and Ell!

If you want a birthday shout-out tell us when yours is by emailling me, using Twitter or adding to the list here.

On this day in F1

Ayrton Senna scored his third consecutive win of 1988 in Hungary.

But he had to fight team mate Alain Prost every step of the way. Prost even nosed ahead at one point only to run wide at the first corner, allowing Senna back through.

Senna won by half a second, pulling level with Prost in the drivers’ championship by doing so. But, crucially, he was already six-four up on wins.

Here’s a portion of the opening laps around the original configuration of the Hungaroring, which was even twister than it is today. This was the last time this particularly layout was used. See this article for details how the track has changed since then:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hweU6VY0W1Q

Image © Mercedes/Hoch Zwei

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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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58 comments on “No changes to tyres this year: Pirelli”

  1. Hey its my bday today Kieth! lol

    1. Happy birthday then @brownerboy!

  2. Girts, I would support a Latvian GP, if only for the grid girls :-)

    1. @tdog Haha, if that was the only criteria, our chances would clearly be higher :D

      1. If we go on that Hungary race edit, the grid girls (and the pitstops) are what really interest FOM, so who knows @girts, you might have a chance. But in that case maybe should dig up those plans from people planning a race around Prague or at Brno as well :-)

  3. ShaneB457 (@shaneb12345678910)
    7th August 2012, 0:53

    Pirelli have done a cracking job so far this year, providing us with exciting races and unpredictability. There’s no need to change anything..

    1. @shaneb12345678910 Yep! They’re being very mature and very open about themselves which is commendable.

    2. @shaneb12345678910 Couldn’t agree more. I have never understood how some unpredictability in F1 can be a bad thing. Moreover, most teams seem to understand the 2012 tyres pretty well now so I think it’s unlikely that we will see a repeat of Canada or Spain this year. What Pirelli need to do is think how to produce different (sligthly more aggressive) tyres again for 2013.

    3. yep, it’s respectable still doesnt explain why did they chose the hard compound for SPA and Monza, at least they havent replaced a compound 3 races into the champ like Bridgestone on motogp.

      1. If I remember correctly, they essentially shifted the tyre-ranges’ names for this year.

        Ie. They got rid of last year’s hard compound and called last year’s medium compound hard for this year. On top of that they made some slight changes to the profile and I think increased wear-resistance a little bit. So more or less, they’ve picked the same tyre specs for Spa and Monza, just under different names.

    4. Paul Hembery is sounding like this would be his decision to make, and that he has decided about the tires for the rest of the season. I find this a bit confusing given that at the start of the season when some drivers/teams were very vocal about their displeasure as to how the tires are affecting the season (by limiting the drivers’ ability to push the cars to their limits), Hembery said they were just doing what the FIA mandated them to do. To the point where my comments on this site were to the effect that the drivers/teams should not be pointing the finger at Pirelli, but at the FIA/F1 for mandating that the tires be as they are.

      So I would think that going forward for the rest of the season, any changes to the tires would have to come from a directive from F1/FIA, not from the office of Paul Hembery.

      For the most part I defended/applauded Hembery at the start of the year for not taking any guff from the drivers/teams, but now I find him a bit disingenuous as he tries to make it sound like they (Pirelli) have decided not to upset the apple cart for fear that a change would favour one team, and ‘they’ don’t want to do that.

      Thought it wasn’t your decision to make, there, Paul…just doing as you’ve been asked…sounds to me like PH is trying to own some ‘power’ over F1 that he doesn’t actually have.

      1. @robbie

        some drivers/teams were very vocal about their displeasure as to how the tires are affecting the season

        I remember Michael Schumacher’s “raw eggs” whingeing, which other drivers complained about them?

        I would think that going forward for the rest of the season, any changes to the tyres would have to come from a directive from F1/FIA, not from the office of Paul Hembery.

        They don’t. The official tyre supplier has fulfilled its obligation to provide four dry-weather tyre specifications and two wet-weather tyre specifications. As long as they keep showing up with enough of them it’s job done.

        And, frankly, they’re dead right not to change the tyres at this stage. There’s obviously nothing wrong with them and the teams are quite capable of completing the race distances. If anything the Hungary allocation was a tad too conservative.

        Hembery is entirely correct to point out that, with the championship so finely poised, if they were to change the tyres at this stage and one team were to gain a huge advantage, they would be pilloried. Surely you don’t disagree with that?

        1. @Keith …perhaps better said, while MS was the most vocal, I didn’t hear other drivers or teams disagreeing with his sentiment about being limited too much by the tires, but more diplomatically they said it is up to the teams to figure them out (and here they are still trying to do that) and I think any driver that tried to get to the end of a race pushing only to lose several spots to the cliff effect in the last 3 laps eg. KR and FA, would share the same sentiment. Point being, even if it was just MS complaining, I didn’t think he should be directing his complaint toward Pirelli, which he did, but toward the FIA/F1 for mandating these tires. So I defended Pirelli and agreed with Hembery that they were just doing as they were instructed.

          And of course I don’t disagree that changing the tires and potentially having that favour one team would not be good, but my point was that I don’t think that it would be Hembery’s decision to make. ie. he can’t just on his own change the tires mid-season even if he wanted to, could he? So he shouldn’t sound like he is being the hero for not changing the tires and potentially upsetting the apple cart. That was my point.

          If he is going to hear MS’s complaint and then respond by saying ‘we are just doing as we have been instructed,’ then he can’t now say WE have decided not to change the tires and risk upsetting the apple cart by having said new tires favour one team. He would be more accurate in saying that F1 has not mandated them to change the tires mid-season, so they aren’t going to.

  4. Whilst people are (rightly) critical of the way Buemi and Alguersuari were dumped late last year, the reality is they were given 3 seasons and 2 and a half seasons respectively to show their wares at Toro Rosso. After the significant investement that Red Bull has made in the current STR pair through the junior formulae, 3rd driver duties at STR, last year at HRT (in the case of Ricciardo) and this season at STR, I think it’s pretty clear that Ricciardo and Vergne will be given at least 2 seasons. Even at the beginning of this year Franz Tost was saying that it would be 2013 before he really expected them to perform. Besides, while the Red Bull Junior program has some good young talent (Sainz Jr, da Costa, Kvyatt) none of them are close to being ready to step up to F1.

    1. I think the problem with having 2 rookies at the same time is that it’s impossible to compare the two.

      I mean, the STR wasn’t a bad car last season. Maybe the drivers are seriously underperforming with a midfield car because of their inexperience. And we’ll never know, because both are very inexperienced in F1.

      It’d make a lot more sense to replace 1 guy at the time. That way you can compare better, and still have an “experienced” driver picking up points and showing the way to the rookie, thus helping the team move fowards, and helping both drivers.

      Also, it’d be a lot more benefitial to the rookie. Imagine if Alguersuari was kept in the team and Ricciardo starts beating him. It’d make Ricciardo look a lot better… kinda like it happened with di Resta and Sutil early last year. Di Resta matched Sutil (a guy with 4 years of experience) in his first year, and Sutil was eventually dropped.

      1. Maybe we will never know, but they (Toro Rosso) know, because they have telemetry and tha’s why they were disappointed with both Buemi and Alguersuari, who couldn’t deliver great or good performances on constant basis.

        Car is making the difference here and while for example last year at the end it was probably 6th fastest car, now it’s clearly 9th fastest car. With all 9 teams so close together and with almost bulletproof cars, it’s difficult to score points, when there are 12 cars (from 6 teams), which are definitely quicker than Toro Rosso – McLaren, Red Bull, Ferrari, Lotus, Sauber, Williams.

        1. Nice to see you admit it in your name @armchairexpert! As far as we know, and as far as STR people have mentioned, they were planning on keeping both, but Red Bull (Marko) decided otherwise. It was probably just because he needed a place to put the new upcoming generation of RB development plan drivers.
          That was why it was only decided very late, because it was not really planned inside the team. And the fact RBR later signed on Buemi as test/3rd driver shows he couldn’t have been too bad.

        2. because they have telemetry and tha’s why they were disappointed with both Buemi and Alguersuari

          But STR were not dissapointed with them, It was Red Bull/Helmet Marko who wanted them both replaced.

          Everything I’ve ever seen from people within STR suggest’s that STR wanted to retain Alguersuari & were perfectly happy with what he was bringing to the team. Also much of the car development through 2011 was apparently been done off Algersuari’s feedback, An area he’ said to be very good at which was one of the reasons Pirelli picked him up.

          1. They were disappointed. After announcement of replacing both drivers, Mark Hughes in his Autosport column (some December or January issue) wrote he spoke to Toro Rosso engineers, not Marko, Tost or whoever else, and they said to him Alguersuari and Buemi weren’t putting maximum possible load on tyres, which engineers spotted on telemetry. Instances of actually getting everything from the car were few and far between, like Singapore 2010 for Alguersuari, but he couldn’t repeat it more often.

  5. Toro Rosso should have hired Sato in 2009 and used him as reference to every STR driver. I never have understood why they never hired Taku, he was always going to be better than Bourdais. I rate DR and JEV highly – I even met Dan, he was introduced to me as the “next Lewis Hamilton” – but it worrys me that STR are compromising themselves by having their drivers know little and having to learn themselves, not allowing the team to move forward. Plus three years ain’t enough, if you aren’t good enough in that time, you are out. If you are unbelievable, you are off to Red Bull. You won’t do any good if you cannot keep hold of your drivers for any length of time, plus the atmosphere will be tense if that is the sort of pressure that you are forced to perform under. You have to have respect for those who died trying under the eyes of that total biased moron Marko, and golden boy Vettel, especially Jaime (Korea 2011).

    1. Harsh words! Anyway, I also think that Dr. Marko’s attitude towards the young drivers gets influenced by emotions. I can understand why he always defends Vettel (and RBR) against attacks from FIA, rival teams or journalists no matter what but it seems that he does the same thing within the Red Bull team, too. Maybe it’s just a cold-blooded the-winner-takes-it-all attitude but I have got the impression that he really likes Vettel, maybe it’s something like a father-son relationship. Whatever the case, I hope that STR will soon get sold so that we have one more normal F1 team.

    2. plus the atmosphere will be tense if that is the sort of pressure that you are forced to perform under.

      The Toro Rosso drivers are far from the only ones who have to worry about being dropped for mediocrity. Three years seems like it would have to be the upper limit of time most F1 teams would be willing to tolerate it!

      1. Ooops – the blockquote tags somehow got completely mixed up there…

    3. I’m not sure why anyone would hire Sato as a reference point, his performances were pretty inconsistent and he was often beaten by his team mates. not much use as a reference I’d say!

      1. Early in his F1 career this was true, However during his years at Super Aguri he matured a great deal, Stopped getting involved in silly accidents & was generally a lot more consistent.

        STR tested Sato in early 2009 & he proved to be faster than the other drivers they tested, However they opted to stick with Bourdais who they dropped at about the half season mark.

    4. Plus three years ain’t enough, if you aren’t good enough in that time, you are out.

      Three years isn’t enough to prove yourself? How long do they need then? Four? Twenty? At least it’s better than the second driver at Virgin/Marussia, who seem to be dropped after one year, and after driving a worse car than what Alguersuari had.

      You won’t do any good if you cannot keep hold of your drivers for any length of time, plus the atmosphere will be tense if that is the sort of pressure that you are forced to perform under.

      It’s the same pressure that various other younger drivers were under when they were at teams with a high driver turnover rate, such as Vettel at STR, or the many Minardi graduates, including Alonso and Webber. Didn’t do them much harm in the end.

    5. Toro Rosso should have hired Sato in 2009

      By 2009 Sato had already been given three separate full-time drives in F1: with Jordan, with BAR and again with Super Aguri. I don’t know what you think he did in that time to show he deserved a fourth chance when most drivers are lucky to get one.

      That was how many chances Bourdais got, and though he didn’t prove up to it I’m glad Toro Rosso gave him a shot instead of Sato. If Toro Rosso were going to pick up either of the ex-Super Aguri drivers in 2009 it should have been Anthony Davidson.

  6. Many thanks for the COTD! Even though there are really a lot of obstacles that would have to be overcome to make a Grand Prix in Latvia happen, it was still very interesting to read that article, which is why I wanted to share the information with the fellow F1 Fanatics.

    By the way, the authors of the mentioned article optimistically estimated the costs of arranging an F1 race in Riga at just 10-15 million lats, which is around 9-13 million pounds. I think that the real costs even for a street grand prix and even if FOM didn’t request a hosting fee (which is unlikely) would be much higher. That is probably the main obstacle but certainly not the only one.

    1. Correction: 11-17 million pounds…

      1. That really does sound like underestimating it big time. When we compare it with what Melbourne and Montreal put in just for building the grandstands. This would hardly cover cost made to improve the roads and repaving etc.

  7. With regards to the Comment of the Day, I find it strange that Bernie has not turned his attentions to Eastern Europe yet. Aside from the Hungarian Grand Prix, Bernie has spent 30 years trying to get a race in Russia, and there was a failed attempt to get a race going in Bulgaria … and that’s it. But Eastern Europe would be ideal, because it would service plenty if countries in Western Europe – like Finland and Poland – and offer half a dozen opportunities to break into the lucrative Russian market without breaking the “no two races in one country” rule, all while offering the local economies a boost. If Riga (Latvia), Vilnius (Lithuania) and Tallinn (Estonia) can consider a joint Olympic bid, then I’m sure they could consider a Grand Prix. Expensive as it is, it would only cost a fraction of the Games.

    1. @prisoner-monkeys I think you’re absolutely right about the closeness to Russia and Scandinavia as an advantage. However, I have never read serious reports about attempts to organise the Olympics in the Baltic states and I also believe that it wouldn’t be easy to agree on a common F1 race, particularly as it would take place in just one of the three countries. We are three friendly countries… as long as big money ain’t involved :)

      The biggest international sporting event we have had in Riga was the 2006 Men’s Ice Hockey Championships. But the organisation of it, particularly the building of a new arena, involved a lot of controversy. And ice hockey is the most popular sport in Latvia, while we have practically no single-seater racing (or drivers) to speak of. The complex political situation and the corruption also often make it hard to realise big projects here.

      Of course, crazier things have happened in the world, but, if any of the Baltic countries is ever going to host an F1 race, then I’d say that Estonia is the most likely candidate.

      1. @girts

        I have never read serious reports about attempts to organise the Olympics in the Baltic states

        I found this the other day while looking for the host of the 2018 Winter Olympics (for the record, it Pyeongchang in South Korea) and obscure capital cities for a geography class to find, though the page is about something that won’t happen for another twelve years, and the article states that the Vilnius-Riga-Tallinn bid is only “a suggestion” at this point. But I did find it interesting.

        And ice hockey is the most popular sport in Latvia, while we have practically no single-seater racing (or drivers) to speak of.

        There was Haralds Šlēgelmilhs (also known as Harald Schlegelmilch), who raced for Trident in the 2008 GP2 Asia Series, where he scored three points; and Karlīne Štāla, who had a short-lived career in Formula Renault 1.6 and the German F3 Series back in 2007 and 2008, but showed enough promise early on to look like she could be the next big female talent to come through the sport.

        if any of the Baltic countries is ever going to host an F1 race, then I’d say that Estonia is the most likely candidate

        I wouldn’t just limit it to the Baltic states – eastern Europe as a whole has plenty of potential. Keith even covered a plan for a circuit in Croatia, and the Ukraine was flirting with the idea of a race. Nothing seems to have come of either plan, but at least the idea is there.

        Thanks mostly to Russia, Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union has seen an explosion of new drivers entering European racing leagues – there have been more Eastern European entries in the past decade than anywhere else in the world (that had no prior presence in motorsport) – so it’s only a matter of time before Bernie opens for business in the region. I think Poland, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Bulgaria, the Ukraine and maybe somewhere in the former Yugoslavia (probably Serbia or Croatia) could all sustain a race, though not all of them. Bulgaria did actually come close to getting a race going, with plans or a circuit at a disused Soviet air base somewhere near Varna (it was pitched as “Silverstone in Eastern Europe”, if I remember rightly) but it faltered when the government in Sofia agreed to set aside the race, but did not commit any funds, which the organisers had been hoping for. And they also wanted a clause in the contract that would make the Bulgarian Grand Prix the only race in Eastern Europe, which would have meant the Hungarian Grand Prix would have to be dropped, and Bernie would have to locate the Russian Grand Prix somewhere east of the Ural Mountains.

        1. @prisoner-monkeys Thanks for the link regarding the Winter Olympics, I didn’t know this before. As I understand, it’s rather a personal opinion by some Lithuanian government official that was told ‘half-jokingly’.

          As for Karlīne & Haralds, you are absolutely right but their careers seem to have stuck now and I think their chances of ever getting even close to F1 or similar level are quite low.

          The idea of having a race somewhere in Eastern Europe in some years from now makes sense, particularly as the economies of quite a few Eastern European countries are now doing better than the ones of their southern neighbours. So it’ll be interesting to watch if there are any serious developments in that direction. After all, if Ukraine and Poland were able to host the European Football Championship this year, then F1 is certainly possible.

    2. There have been talks in Romania as well with Tilke GmbH for a circuit somewhere near Bucharest + there’s the Transilvania Motorland project near Brasov – an FIA omologated circuit that plans to host F2 and WSR races starting 2014 + there’s the Bucharest Ring that has hosted FIA GT / GT3 and Auto GP races in the past… All these tracks could very well be built or upgraded in order to meet the requirements for a Formula 1 GP.

      As much as I agree with the fact that the eastern bloc has a whole heap of potential and that eastern european countries started producing all sorts of drivers in the past couple of years, the main issues with the potential GPs in this area (other than a Russian GP) are of a different nature:

      1. The infrastructure in countries like Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Serbia and so on is underdeveloped. No freeways / small airports / traffic issues everywhere / not nearly as many decent and accessible accomodation options etc.
      2. There’s the risk of low attendance rates as there’s not much interest for motorsport in general / a very large number of people will not be able to afford the tickets to a Formula 1 GP. Remember Turkey? It was supposed to be a GP that caters for Eastern Europe, especially Romania, Bulgaria and Greece.
      3. Motorsport’s lack of popularity might lead to all sorts of controversies as people and the local administrations / councils will immediately ask: “Why invest in a race track when those money could go in a whole other direction / for the development of something else? Why all the fuss for something that might not work?” It happened before and it will happen again.
      4. There’s Hungaroring that already caters succesfully for countries like Austria, Romania, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Poland, Czech Republic and so on as it’s both very accesible in terms of travel arrangements and affordable – it has the cheapest tickets in the whole calendar.

      And these are just a couple of obvious issues. There’s another hundred of underlying motives for not bringing F1 in ex-soviet countries…again, other than Russia.

      To be honest, if it’s gonna happen it’s gonna be in Russia. Otherwise, bringing A1 Ring (or Red Bull Ring or whatever they call it these days) or Brno into the F1 calendar might seem like a much reasonable option to anyone.

    3. There have been talks about making F1 circuit (or at least Formula3 league) in Estonia, though none during or after the economic collapse. And looking how much Finnish there were in Hungaroring i’d say Finland or St Petersburg (if the Sochi circuit fails) would be better suited. Also the Baltic GP would need to relay on international spectators/funding heavily as the people are much poorer here.

  8. With that said, maybe the teams engineers, aero specialists can take a breath of fresh air and relax knowing there will be one less surprise to deal with mid-season.

  9. About the COTD, here in Greece there have been also talks about a Greek GP. Although this seems quite crazy at the moment, given the economic situation of Greece right now, the minister of Sports said last week that they support a suggestion made about a grand prix close to Piraeus, the biggest port in Greece. The plan is to host a grand prix, probably from 2015 onwards which would attract tourists and help the local economy.

    Although it’s a very bad idea for the economy, given what happened at the Athens Olympics 2004, they take it quite seriously.

    Anyway here is the plan http://www.e-go.gr/wmotors/articles.asp?catid=15886&subid=2&pubid=7245190

    1. @black – I believe the idea of a Greek Grand Prix was touted a few years ago as well. A quick Google search reveals this as the proposed circuit.

      1. Well the circuit you mentioned was proposed i think last year and it was located near Patra, a city 200km away from Athens, but its construction was canceled. Lately there was a proposal for that circuit near Athens (half race cicruit / half street circuit) which although there are talks – i think Ecclestone will visit the location this month – , i don’t see it happening.

    2. @black @ Yeah, even though an F1 race obviously can help boost the economy, the precise gain from hosting it is hard to estimate. Moreover, it’s a long-term investment, so it most probably wouldn’t be an appropriate thing to do for Greece at the moment.

  10. Dimitris 1395 (@)
    7th August 2012, 9:11

    The reasons Alguersuari and Buemi got fired last year were just pathetic. Ricciardo has some good races and I would like to see him next year when he will be more experienced. But overall, his performance is nowhere near his status he had when he arrived in F1, as the ‘Next Mark Webber”. I’m 99% certain that with JA and Buemi driving, STR would have double the points he has right now…

    1. @dimitris-1395

      I’m 99% certain that with JA and Buemi driving, STR would have double the points he has right now…

      You’re probably right but I don’t think Toro Rosso are there to come eighth instead of ninth in the Constructors’ Championship – they’re there to find the next Vettel for Red Bull.

      1. And currently they aren’t finding him…

        1. @vettel1 It’s still early days for both of them. We didn’t see much from Vettel until Valencia in 2008.

          1. Dimitris 1395 (@)
            7th August 2012, 13:12

            China 2007?

          2. @keithcollantine I think Vettel was impressive at China 2007 (as @dimitris-1395 mentioned), as well as Monaco 2008, Canada 2008 and Germany 2008. He also took STR into Q3 for the first times, in Japan 07 and Australia 08. However it is true that he was even more consistent and impressive in the 2nd half of 2008.

      2. I haven’t seen much from them, Riccardo’s brilliant qualifying in Bahrain being an exception, but given time I think Riccardo could be on par with JA & SB. Vergne on the other hand is a disappointment as far as I’m concerned.

        1. Funny, I am not really impressed with Riccardo, but see some really nice driving at times from Vergne (several times he did a good job on a wet track) apart from some big cockups and to me its pretty normal to expect a rookie to have to get to grips with nailing that lap, but actually finishing the races is more important.

      3. they’re there to find the next Vettel for Red Bull.

        And thats why I strongly dislike the way Red Bull are running STR.

        A team should be out there to do the best for themselfs, Not to simply find the next driver for a bigger team, Thats what the junior categories are supposed to do.

        Buemi & Algersuari were both doing a good job, They were the sort of drivers most Mid-Field teams would be perfectly happy with. Neither deserved to be booted out of F1 simply because those at Red Bull didn’t think they were going to be the next Vettel.

  11. The pirelli tyres are concerning degredation fine; the problem is that they only have a very small sweet spot to get them work properly. The operational working interval should be wider so that some teams aren’t suddenly caught out by changing conditions.

    1. Not that I necessarily disagree with you, but I think your suggestion would upset the unpredictability that everyone (but the drivers and teams perhaps) seems to be enjoying.

  12. German Motorsport Total says that the teams have received a letter from Jean Todt last week (31/7) asking them to agree on one of 3 options for having the RRA as part of the FIA rules for 2013 and onwards.:

    Zur Wahl stehen demnach drei Optionen: erstens eine FIA-seitige Kontrolle des Chassis-RRA ab 2013 und des Motoren-RRA ab 2014, zweitens ein kombiniertes Chassis- und Motoren-RRA ab 2014 und drittens gar keine finanziellen Einschnitte und freies Geldausgeben für alle. Sollte eine der ersten beiden Optionen umgesetzt werden, würde das RRA auf Basis des Status quo (Singapur 2010) vermutlich als Anhang des Sportlichen Reglements in Kraft treten.

    My translation into English:

    There are 3 choices offered: in the first place a FIA-regulated Chassis-RRA from 2013 and an Engine-RRA from 2014, the second option being a combined Chassis- and Engine-RRA starting in 2014 and the third option not having any financial cuts and free spending for all. If one of the first options is taken up, the RRA would become part Active as a supplement to the Sporting Regulations based on the Status quo (Singapore 2010).

    They also mention that 10 teams (all but both Red Bull outfits) have already agreed on the first option and so far only 1 team has not reacted yet.

  13. Hi, long time reader, first time poster, seen a few comments above with people going on about how everyone loves the current tyres.

    sky ran an article on there website recently regarding the current tyres & 87% of the comments to that article were from people complaining about the Pirelli tyres & the comment voting system on the website also saw more votes for the comments critisising the tyres.

    BBC Radio commentator James Allen also had a poll on his website just after the 1st races in which most voted to make the tyres more durable.

    Im also a member of the american Speed tv website/message board & article regarding tyres & polls/discussion on the message board have all shown that the majority of those who vote/comment dislike the current Pirelli rubber.

    1. Forgot to add my final point, LOL.

      Basically was pointing out that clearly ‘most’ don’t necisarily like the Pirelli tyres, I myself dislike it when differences in compound or wear makes a joke of passing when its frankly ridiculously easy.

      I also think there’s far too much gimmickey, artificial nonsence in F1 now. F1 should be the pinnacle & not lower itself to any sort of artificial gimmicks.
      Artificial things been introduced has made me turn off many other categories (Touring cars with there silly success balast & reverse grids) & if F1 carries on down this route I can see myself simply switching off F1 as well.

      1. I disagree – as I wrote last month, the last poll we did here showed little appetite for a significant change in the tyres. I think the phrase “gimmicky, artificial nonsense” is better applied to DRS:

        Polls show fans more concerned about DRS than tyres

      2. I think those polls had a lot of knee-jerk reaction voters and I would argue were pretty much knee-jerk reactions themselves. If the same polls were run right now, as the poll run here shows, the results would be very different indeed.

        Someone somewhere coined the phrase “tyre lottery” and has a lot to answer for, as it suggested that there was no way for the teams to understand what they had to do when all evidence suggested that they would eventually do just that. Lo and behold, they have and the faster cars are coming to the fore.

        1. @ral

          I think those polls had a lot of knee-jerk reaction voters and I would argue were pretty much knee-jerk reactions themselves.

          I agree and that’s exactly why I waited a few days before running the poll on tyres. Explanation here:

          https://www.racefans.net/2012/05/23/f1-fanatic-roundup-235/#comment-1011503

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