Red Bull Christian Horner says Pirelli compounds too complicated in 2012 – Formula 1 news
Red Bull boss Christian Horner believes 2012 Pirelli’s may remain to be a complication for most teams.
The Pirelli compounds have been an important topic after most Grands Prix this season. The reason mainly that most drivers have still found it hard to understand the nature of the tyres.
Drivers like Michael Schumacher have shown their dissent at the complex compounds. While Pirelli maintain that the tyres are fine and are not as complex as some drivers are making them to be. Yet they also admitted that the nature of the compounds is a reason
for the Grands Prix to be more exciting this season.
The issue is with good qualifying performance and long distance pace in the race. In the recently concluded Canadian GP Sebastian Vettel looked quick throughout practice and the qualifiers but he was not able to show the same pace during the race, at least
not as well as the victor Lewis Hamilton.
Horner says that the teams will not be able to unravel the mystery behind the compounds this season and team will have to deal with the varying speeds shown by cars between qualifying and the races.
“I think that the [tyre] window is so narrow on this that it's difficult,” explained Horner. “You can move the performance around: you can attack qualifying and maybe it hurts you in the race, or you can go soft in qualifying like Lotus did and perhaps be
stronger in the race.”
“I think this is going to be a factor for probably another 13 races. It's a tricky one. Fernando [Alonso] is probably sitting there wishing he had pitted with 15 laps to go, but again, seven laps from the end he is leading the grand prix,” he added.
He said that it is another reason the season will find it hard to predict strategies for the race because some cars are behaving better in the long run pace while than their single-lap performances.
It seems that the impact of the Pirelli compounds is more than it was expected. It will be interesting to see how teams deal with the issue and progress in the season.
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