Pirelli hopes to introduce a revised tyre construction in time for the British Grand Prix in order to reduce the likelihood of failures like those seen in Azerbaijan.
Teams will be given the opportunity to test the revised rear tyre constructions in practice for the Austrian Grand Prix next week at the Red Bull Ring.Max Verstappen and Lance Stroll suffered left-rear tyre failures on their C3 compounds during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Pirelli’s head of motorsport Mario Isola said the new construction was based on one which was created following their tests of 2021 rubber at the Autodromo do Algarve in Portugal last year. The company is confident next week’s test will demonstrate the tyres are suitable for introduction at the following round at Silverstone.
“We believe that the change is going to happen, but obviously we are talking about the construction that we never tested before on-track,” said Isola.
“But after Portimao, or in the period in which we were in Portimao, we had also some other ideas on how to make the rear tyre more robust and we made some prototypes. One of those prototypes was also tested with our indoor test. We usually run several indoor tests to assess the level of integrity of the tyre. And the new construction was positive in this regard.
“So the 2021 construction is for sure a step better than 2020. But the new one we want to propose is another clear step in the direction of having a tyre that is more robust than the current one.”
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The Baku failures were blamed on teams running their tyres at lower levels than Pirelli expected, despite them complying with the stipulated minimum starting pressures. The FIA responded by imposing new restrictions on how teams may operate their tyres.
However as Pirelli is unable to monitor teams’ tyre pressures during races, it remains concerned about the potential for further problems. It believes the new construction will offer a further safeguard.
“It is true that with the new technical directive we have a much better situation now,” said Isola. “The number of controls and the type of controls, number of controls made by the FIA are giving us a good guarantee about the way in which teams are running the tyres.
“That is clear, but it’s also clear that we don’t have a standard sensor. We said that until 2022 it’s impossible to introduce a standard sensor. So the situation has improved massively compared to a few races ago. But we still have this impossibility to check the running pressure and we have a busy year in front of us.
“So we believe that having this solution in the pocket and not using it is not the right decision. And that’s why we want to test it, obviously giving all the teams the opportunity to test it in Spielberg and to introduce it from Silverstone onwards.”
Isola is confident the new construction is sufficiently similar to the old one not to present any problems for teams or drivers.
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“I’m not expecting a different drive-ability,” he said. “Obviously it is a different construction in terms of the geometry and the design of the tyre. We are not going to change the profile, the external profile, because otherwise this affects the design of the floor and the downforce on the rear of the car.
“So it is not going to change these elements, but it is more robust. And as I said, in terms of drive-ability, I’m not expecting a big shift in balance or something like that. But we need to test it on track to confirm that.”
The Baku tyre failures occured on the inside shoulders of the tyres and were not due to cuts from debris, Pirelli’s analysis showed. Isola said the new construction is not designed to offer superior protection against debris.
“If we talk about cuts on the tread, there is no difference. Probably it’s slightly more resistant on the sidewall, but it was designed more for the integrity parameters rather than resistance to external objects.”
BasCB (@bascb)
25th June 2021, 20:27
Well, I am happy that the tyres were all safe and good to go! Guess we should be glad that Pirelli reacts quickly?
Not sure I would actually feel too good about it when we have to see tyres go bang before the supplier brings an emergency solution, especially when further development of the cars is quite limited and there shouldn’t be too many surprises with teams outdeveloping the tyres this year.
anon
26th June 2021, 13:53
@bascb I would suspect it is rather more likely that Pirelli was already working on those tyres and has just brought forward their introduction because of Baku.
This announcement of a change in tyre construction has come less than three weeks after the race in Baku, and barely one and a half weeks after Pirelli publicly announced the cause of the failure in Baku. The introduction of these new tyres, meanwhile, is only six weeks after Baku – there would be a very narrow window between completing the investigation into the failure in Baku, developing a new design of the tyre to rectify those issues and then being able to produce enough of those new tyres to then satisfy demand for the British GP, especially since you’d assume that there would have to test the new construction to verify it is suitable.
Balue (@balue)
25th June 2021, 20:48
Trust F1 to mess up a perfect season with some rule or spec changes at the critical moment
erikje
25th June 2021, 22:17
Still, first suggesting the blame lies on several teams using the tires the wrong way, and now offering a solution to an non existing problem.
The least you can say its not a transparent way of doing business. Teams are customers and very dependent on only one brand. The Fia makes the rules en the specifications and the teams have to cope with it.
I have an opinion
25th June 2021, 23:59
Some friendly advice to Pirelli: you do your brand more harm than good when being evasive about deficiencies in safety – just look at Boeing.
Chris
26th June 2021, 10:35
Pirelli : New tires will suit Mercedes more from British GP till the end of the season so to make sure the golden boy wins another paper championship.
Dave
26th June 2021, 11:11
If I had to say a short summary of Azerbaijan, then it’s this: Pirelli. Did. This.
Manto (@manto93)
26th June 2021, 11:46
Just like 2013: before there was parity between teams, after tyre change Rb and Merc (this year for sure only merc) dominated the rest of the races.
How to make a fake championship part 6
Silfen (@silfen)
27th June 2021, 22:15
And another in-season change because the championship isn’t playing out as some people want.
First the flex wings, then the pitstop speed and now the tyres. What’s next to stop Red Bull Racing?
And no word about the front wings yet.