Pirelli responds to its critics regarding the degradation of its new tyre compounds
The new lone tyre suppliers of the Formula 1, Pirelli, recently responded to their critics regarding the degradation of its new tyre compounds. The new tyre suppliers have been criticized for their new compounds as most of the drivers and professionals including
Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton have recently stated that the new compounds wear out quicker than it was expected.
However, the manufacturers of Pirelli have stated that this feature has been added to their new tyre compounds on purpose, in order to improve Formula 1 and make it more entertaining.
“The increased degradation is a feature specifically requested by the teams and the organisers to improve the show. This is an opportunity for the sport, not a problem,” a statement by the manufacturer said.
He added that the tyres have not been tested in optimum conditions yet during their official winter testing with their official test driver Pedro de la Rosa, both in terms of temperatures and track conditions.
However, the manufacturers of Pirelli are hopeful that the conditions at the final pre-season test session, that is expected to take place in Barcelona will allow the teams and manufacturers to verify the real performance of the new Pirelli tyre compounds.
“We hope that in Barcelona for next week's test there are the conditions to allow everyone to verify the real performance of our tyres. We will continue to work closely with the teams and pay great attention to their feedback,” according to a manufacturer
from Pirelli.
This response shortly came after Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso's statement in which he stated that the degradation is quite significant because of which, the teams will have to opt for lots of pit stops.
“From what we have seen so far, degradation is very significant, which means we will have races with lots of pit stops. I'm not keen on that because I think this increased uncertainty does not favour the strongest teams,” he said.
The 2010 Formula 1 World Champion Sebastian Vettel also stated that the new tyres “degrade too quickly”. He stated that the new tyres start falling apart around lap 16-17 and since they degrade quickly, the drivers can’t control the degradation rate of the
new tyres.
The degradation of the new tyres was quite visible during the pre-season test sessions and as the manufacturers of Pirelli stated, it is required in Formula 1 at the moment since the 2010 season was quite “dull” in terms of pit strategies, as most of the
drivers opted for a 2 or even 1 pit strategy as well for some of the races in 2010.
Nevertheless, it would be interesting to see what Pirelli does about this problem at the final pre-season test session which is expected to begin on the 8th of March in Barcelona.
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