No change to Canada race tyres

2013 Canadian Grand Prix

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Pirelli have confirmed the tyres for the Canadian Grand Prix will be the same specification as those used earlier this season.

Formula One’s official tyre supplier had announced it would change its tyres in time for the next race.

In a statement today Pirelli confirmed the new tyres would be supplied for use in practice only, giving teams a chance to evaluate them before they are used in a race.

The nominated tyre compounds for the Canadian Grand Prix are super-soft and medium. Two sets of medium compound tyres using the new construction will be made available for each driver during practice.

Pirelli say the new tyre is designed “to prevent any instances of the tread detaching itself from the structure”. However they added “the performance and wear characteristics of the new tyre will not be significantly different, with the aim of keeping up the spectacle and retaining a strategic element to all the races”.

The new tyre will be used in a race for the first time at the British Grand Prix.

2013 Canadian Grand Prix

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Image © Pirelli/LAT

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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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28 comments on “No change to Canada race tyres”

  1. “… so expect much more activity at Catalun- erm… sorry, Canada, not Catalunya, Canada”

    1. lolz…

    2. Mother of god, I thought I was the only one with this problem.

  2. This one of the problems with no proper tire testing in season. There is a possible safety issue with delaminating and the only way to test new tires that may be the solution is during race weekend practice sessions? So, a team is trying to set up their car to qualify well and hopefully win the race, that is the objective. Then they should take time out from that to test tires that are different and have no bearing on the race weekend? As much as this idea does not make any sense, what are the alternatives under the current rules? As James Allen said, F1 is dysfunctional.

    1. well, to be honest, especially on street tracks like this, the first practice session hardly ever sees much action, as teams try to only do a bit of running while they hope others clean the track.

      1. Tires have obviously been a uniquely difficult issue this year, thanks to F1’s own unfortunate meddling in asking for inferior tires to spice up the show. I would think the teams would be happy to have some better tires to test knowing that they will have them for the next race.

  3. So basically Pirelli did this in case Mercedes turned out to be very competitive in Canada, but I think any improvements they made during that infamous test will show, no matter what tyre they use.

    1. No, they did this because teams refused to agree with the new tyres, for fears that it could upset the balance. So now they can get a feel for the tyres themselves before they are put on the car in anger.

    2. @bullmello ofc it’s not the same, but that R31 Pirelli has (or had, not sure what they got now) would do the job quite nicely. If it’s a construction problem (not performance), there must be a long list of ways to test it.

      Of course, it’s always best to test it with the actual cars and conditions. But in engineering, that’s not always possible. If the problem is delamination, they can put as many laps as they want, trying to mimick current-F1 conditions and test the tyres rather easily…

      But as @bascb says, it’s more about what that difference with the new (but old) construction has on the cars. A steel or kevlar band should change the properties of the tyre quite a lot, specially since some teams are believed to be running tyres on the opposite side (rear lefs on the rear right side of the car). So they better test with these first person.

      Another thing too. It’s a long championship. If they don’t use track time to test the new tyres, then they might have the upper hand at Canada, but we’re still not even halfway through the championship. If anything, they should test those new tyres more than the Canada settings (or better, find compromise)

  4. is this the first race where a super-soft/medium combination has been used?

    1. No we have Australia 2013 already

  5. I wonder if the teams that dislike the re-structured tires and disagree will be able to race with the spec-tires they started the season with…??

    1. That’s a good question. It certain would alleviate any concerns Ferrari and Lotus have expressed that giving RBR new tires would lessen the advantage said teams feel they have had over RBR so far this season. Let Ferrari and Lotus keep running on those tires if they feel they are that much better than Red Bull on them.

      A couple of thoughts on that though. If the tires have been deemed needing changing due to delaminations ie. a safety issue as opposed to a too-many-pit-stops issue or a delta time issue, then I would say all teams will have no choice but to go with the new tires as of Britain.

      I also think that Ferrari and Lotus would in fact go with the new tires even if given a choice anyway. I think their complaints have been as much about posturing as anything…wanting to see RBR handcuffed by the tires moreso than them, but ultimately I think all the teams understand that Pirelli won’t be changing the tires drastically, and the changes they make, the effort, is to advantage everybody equally as much as they possibly can so that in fact the tire change does not change the outlook of the season.

      The last thing Pirelli wants is to sway the season one way or another toward any one team, which is why they are in such a difficult spot, and why imho they did this somewhat secretive but crucial test without using a current top-3 team.

  6. I´m so tired of tires talk that I don´t want to listen or read about tires anymore. Not even the tires on my own car.

  7. Great decision by FIA. I’m glad RBR’s crying hasn’t paid off.

    1. This decision has zero to do with the FIA, Its just Pirelli wanting to test the tyre before planning to introducing it at Silverstone.

      As to Red Bull, Despite what is been said its clear that there not the only one’s complaining about the 2013 tyres.

  8. Well, there’s a surprise (not). Pirelli could not have introduced new tyres without seeming to pour petrol on the fire. They are in a very sticky position at the moment. Will they even bother to bid for the 2014 contract?

  9. I do hope they go ahead with the changes to the construction for Silverstone, as the delaminations are a serious safety concern. We can’t be having tyre delaminations through corners like Eau Rouge – the compounds don’t need changed but the constructions definitely do.

    1. If you want safety, this year’s construction is safer than last year’s one.
      Delaminations need to be fixed, but they are result of overheating. If they can fix that problem without reverting to kevlar bands, that would be much safer.

      The thing is, this year’s tires don’t instantly deflate from puncture, even when they get delaminated, they are still drivable, which makes them much safer, than last year’s tires which instantly deflate when punctured. You don’t loose as much control of the car even when it delaminates, as you would when it instantly deflates.

      They should preserve with current construction, but try to address the issue of delamination, while preserving the slow deflation characteristics of the tires.
      From what I’ve read, that won’t be the case.

    2. I hope the teams don’t agree and we keep the same tyres, force India are apparently not going to agree to any changes, because they know what it could do to their pace. If they change back to last years sidewall construction, it will play into the hands of teams who haven’t built their car around this years tyres, just like bob said, and I hope the changes get blocked by the teams.

      1. It’s absolute ** that they’re even considering it. If they change tyres mid season there’s no point watching the rest of the season, because they will be handing an unfair advantage to teams who’ve done a poor job, at the expense of teams who understand the properties of this years tyres. Playing with the pecking order through altering something everyone should have designed their car around is totally outrageous, and wouldn’t be tolerated in other professional sports.

        1. @fangio85 Did you also stop watching when they changed the tyres in the middle of 2011?

  10. Wow… I’m a TRUE f1 AND ferrari tifoso since my childhood but I cant believe I’m almost to the point of not wanting to watch this year races. All I’m seeing is a bunch of drivers chasing their lap ” target” time…. Could you imagine a driver like Mansell in today f1…??? Sad

    1. What exactly is a ferrari tifoso?

      1. @aish ‘Tifoso’ is the Italian word for ‘fan’ (‘Tifosi’ = ‘fans’). Used in F1 it’s taken to mean ‘Ferrari fan’, but it can refer to a fan of anything.

  11. Thx to Pirelli this season has been a major turn off. I’m all for close racing and having tires as a strategic element but when nursing the tires becomes the main objective in a race then you have to say they failed miserably. And the excuse that they delivered what they were ask doesn’t stand anymore. Hembery himself said that limited testing is the major culprit. But then you have to ask why they gambled with new specs if they knew they would never be able to test it properly.

    1. Fair comment. But they didn’t have any more testing for last year’s tires than they did for this year’s. For sure, Pirelli took it a step too far for this year, but in general they did have the green flag from F1 to do this, and the teams had data on them going back to last September and nobody predicted these tires would be delaminating. Lack of testing surely is an issue but they don’t seem too motivated to increase the costs of racing in F1 by adding testing and as I say last year they had the same amount of testing and the tires were ‘fine’ or at least, not as problematic.

      Why did they gamble without proper testing? Probably because they thought they could spice things up even moreso than last year and didn’t think the gamble was going to be that big such that tires would be delaminating. I would hope it is a case of lesson learned, and that given that new tires are on the horizon, and next year the new engine/chassis combos should provide enough spice, I think Canada may be the last race we’ll see tires potentially delaminating. Unfortunately I suspect delta time running will still be quite prevalent for the rest of the season, but that’s the mode F1 seems to want to be in right now. Yet this form of ‘racing’ seems so unpopular not just with the drivers (whose comfort level F1 never seems to care about) but with so many fans that I’m pretty confident we won’t see this type of ‘racing’ next year.

  12. I think this is a wise decision on Pirelli/F1’s part. There is a perception that Mercedes may have gained an advantage from the 3 day test (as any team they used would have been accused of being advantaged), but even RBR’s drivers said after Monaco that advantage would be minimal and they seemed confident that Pirelli would not have shared data with Merc. Personally I don’t think the tires will be changed so drastically that suddenly Merc won’t be eating rears. I think they will continue to struggle with that issue all year, but perhaps a little less so on average, while the other teams will also struggle a little less. I suspect that unfortunately we will still see a lot of running to delta times.

    I think that by allowing all the teams to try the next gen tires in Canada, then it levels the playing field. Merc themselves were not given data on the tires, so now Merc and everyone else can try out the tires, compile some data, and be on pretty much even ground when they get to the British GP.

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