Esteban Gutierrez says managing his tyres is an area where he still needs to improve after completing his pre-season testing.
Speaking to media in Barcelona yesterday he said: “There is a certain tyre management thing, the new tyre run, where you have to compromise certain sectors to get the third sector right.
“I think this compromise is one of the things I need to work on.
“And also at the same time this is something completely different to work this management tyre in the long run. I think on that side I can improve a bit.”
However he is not concerned about the challenge of getting to grips with the tyres: “To be honest it was not that difficult.”
“It’s very important, once you get a good understanding of the tyres, there’s a possibility to manage them and I feel very comfortable with that.
“I think that part was very interesting on my side to feel and also for the feedback to the team in order to have a proper long runs and a race simluation. So basically I think on that side we are in a positive side.”
Gutierrez said he had a productive day in the car on Saturday when the weather was dry: “It was good that we did a lot of laps and we found this little thing that, you know, are important before coming to Australia.
“At the end we had also good laps in the morning, good new tyre session, and good race simulation in the afternoon. For me, for my experience was a very positive day.”
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AdrianMorse (@adrianmorse)
3rd March 2013, 13:18
More than last year, it looks like one quick lap takes a lot of performance out of a tyre. Last year the tyres were ok again after cooling down, but I wonder whether tyres having had one all-out Q3 lap will still be usable for the race.
(there’s a typo at Tthere)
BasCB (@bascb)
3rd March 2013, 16:18
Also Gutierrez has got a lot to live up to after filling Perez boots in the team – after Sergio made the tyres last far longer than anyone thought possible in the last 2 years!
TonyZZZBZ
3rd March 2013, 18:22
Honestly, I think this tyre management thing is getting out of hands…
I won’t deny that the pirellis have help to put a good show, but to much focus on tyre degradation is pathetic!
Racing should be about going fast flat out not about tyre management!
SatchelCharge (@satchelcharge)
3rd March 2013, 21:06
I was thinking about this as well, the 2013 tires have potential to make the Q3 tire rule even more nonsensical.
GT_Racer
3rd March 2013, 23:01
On the live sky coverage yesterday Paul Di Resta said that he thinks we will see a lot less running in all 3 parts of qualifying this year as everyone will want to save as many new sets for the race as possible because of how quickly the performance of the 2013 tyres drops off.
Hope thats wrong but we’ll find out in 2 weeks.
PhilEReid (@philereid)
3rd March 2013, 23:47
They need qualifying tyres, or rather, the same tyres as racing happens on, but you don’t have to start on those ones, just the type you qualify on (all teams would get an extra set of options or primes, depending on which was qualified on (could be given after the session), so it would be like a qualifying tyre, but just the standard race tyre compound). That way people will push to qualify, and then be able to start the race on a equal playing feild, regarding tyres at least. This should also increase qualifying running with there being to need to save tyres.