Lewis Hamilton says new hard tyres introduced by Pirelli are a disaster – Formula 1 news
According to the 2008 Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton, the new hard tyre compound introduced by Pirelli at this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix is a “disaster.”
Pirelli is hoping to introduce a new “super hard” compound which is going to add another five laps of life to the tyres but during the Friday free practice sessions of the Spanish Grand Prix, the drivers struggled for grip and the degradation rate was quite
high as well.
Hamilton claims that the tyres make the car noticeably “slow” and that they do not add any sufficient amount of extra life either.
“The car was OK once we got to the better tyre. I think everyone was much, much happier with the [soft] tyre. The super hard is a disaster, that wasn't nice to drive. A two second difference, and they don't last longer,” he said.
He stated that the tyres felt poor during the morning free practice session. Lewis is not convinced with the performance of the new tyres at all as he believes that the previous tyres were much better than these.
“It looks pretty difficult to switch on, and then to last, it's just sliding. I think we were about 2.5 seconds off the pace just with that tyre. Then we switched to the normal soft, and it was fantastic. I think you'll see most people driving with that
tyre for the weekend,” said Hamilton.
Other than the McLaren driver, Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi stated that the new super hard compound changes the feel of the car completely. He said they were very slow and tricky as a result of which, the teams’ strategies are going to be interesting this weekend.
On the other hand, the two-time Formula 1 world champion Fernando Alonso believes that the teams will use soft tyres during the first session of the qualifying round and use the hard tyres during the race. However, he added that it would make it very difficult
for the teams to complete the race without a minimum of four pit stops.
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