Pirelli satisfied with progress on tyres during Valencia testing
Pirelli are confident that progress on their tyres is heading in the right direction after three days of testing at Valencia.
There was a lot of concern shown by the drivers during testing as the tyres were reported to be wearing out very quickly. However, Pirelli said that tyre degradation was caused by the weather conditions at Valencia, which don’t reflect the true picture at
all.
Pirelli boss Paul Hembery said, “All tyres degrade and that is something people seem to have forgotten over the last few days. We have been using the medium compound primarily and we are very happy with how that is going.”
There was an initial wear noticed after the first few laps during the Valencia tests but afterwards, the tyres were consistent.
Hembery explained, “It is two levels – degradation and wear. Wear is the way the compound is consumed on the tyre, which is different from degradation. There you move from a peak of performance to a stabilised performance – and that is in line with what
we see and understand.”
The Italian tyre manufacturers were confident that improvements will be seen during the next two testing sessions at Jerez and Barcelona, and teams will be pleased with the tyres after minor modifications are made to them.
However, Hembery was a bit surprised with the criticism on the over-steer, which was witnessed on the tyres. He said that drivers had been requesting that, and there is no point in criticising the over-steer now.
All the teams stated that they wanted a stronger front tyre after struggling in the 2010 season with the Bridgestone tyres. Pirelli followed the instructions of the teams and the stronger front-tyre caused over-steer.
Hambery said that if the teams want a stronger rear tyre, that will be developed in the 2012 season, but then teams will complain about under-steer.
The only driver amongst the current lot to have raced on Pirelli tyres in Formula One is Michael Schumacher. The veteran driver didn’t find too many problems with the Pirelli tyres and said that the initial testing was good for him and Mercedes.
It will be interesting to see how the drivers react to this situation, but it seems that there will be some problems with tyre balance throughout the 2011 season.
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