Pirelli satisfied with new experimental tyre compound at Nurburgring practice sessions – Formula 1
Paul Hembery, the Motorsport director of Pirelli recently stated that the lone tyre suppliers of Formula 1 are satisfied with the new experimental soft tyres they tested at the legendary Nurburgring during the Friday practice sessions of the 2011 German
Grand Prix.
Hembery claims that the soft tyres they tested recently can become the 2012 Formula 1 season’s medium tyre compound
“So one option could be to use it as a medium tyre next year. The cool conditions today meant that the rapid warm-up time of the soft tyre was an important factor in performance, and we expect that to remain the case for the rest of the weekend,” he said.
The teams tested these tyres in order to provide Pirelli with as much data as they want in order to further develop these tyres and probably come up with a final product way before the next season.
“We've been pleased with what we can see so far of the performance from our experimental P Zero Yellow tyres. Although we will have to wait to hear the detailed feedback from the teams before we draw too many conclusions,” he said.
He added that these new tyres have added durability and they provide the car with almost the same pace as the current soft tyres which last around 15 laps a race. Since the current soft tyres have some durability issues, it seems that these new tyres have
covered that problem but still Hembery believes that more performance can be squeezed out of these tyres.
Tyres have played a major role this season as the teams had to work on their respective cars in order to make them suitable for these tyres. Since they degrade quite quickly, the teams have been opting for at least a two-pit strategy which was the requirement
of the sport this year.
One of the main reasons for Red Bull Racing team’s dominance this year is their handling of these new tyres and it is going to be interesting to see how teams strategically plan the upcoming race in Nurburgring.
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