Teams won’t get to use 2014 tyres in final practice

2013 Brazilian Grand Prix

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Teams will not be allowed to use Pirelli’s prototype 2014 tyres during the final practice session, FIA race director Charlie Whiting has confirmed.

Wet conditions in both of today’s practice sessions meant few drivers ran the development 2014 slick tyre which Pirelli provided. That led to requests for teams to be granted a dispensation from the rules to use them in practice tomorrow.

Whiting told the teams: “Further to the discussion in the team managers meeting yesterday, and having discussed the matter at length with the stewards, I can confirm that in accordance with article 25.4 (b) of the Sporting Regulations the two sets of development tyres provided for use in first and second practice today may not be used in third practice.”

Sebastian Vettel was the only driver to complete a lap on the prototype tyres during practice. “We’ve got the data that we need,” race engineer Guillaume Rocquelin told him as he returned to the pits as the rain intensified during his run.

Vettel offered to repeat the exercise but was told: “No it’s OK, we’re fine, we’ve got the data.”

However Mercedes team principal Ross Brawn doubted Red Bull could have gained much from the test. “With all due respect Red Bull may have found something out that we don’t anticipate,” he said, “but we couldn’t understand what you would learn in those conditions, even though it looked like they were trying to take the profiles of the tyres and so on”.

2013 Brazilian Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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19 comments on “Teams won’t get to use 2014 tyres in final practice”

  1. No it’s OK, we’re fine, we’ve got the data

    Nevermind even if they didn’t found anything and the tyres will not suit them next year they will just moan about it and ask Bernie Ecclestone to put the pressure on Pirelli to manipulate the change in their favor

    1. (@tifoso1989

      I hate it when those comments come out.. You don’t even know what Red Bull are doing behind your back. 2nd, I don’t know how many laps Vettel did on those tyres, but I am sure it was minimal cause he returned to the pits. That’s already data gathering done, even though the conditions weren’t good. 3rd, enough with those comments against RB or anyone. Be unbiased or neutral in F1.

      1. @krichelle

        You don’t even know what Red Bull are doing behind your back

        What i know is that Dietrich Mateschitz had a long meeting with Bernie Ecclestone after the spanish GP which was won by Fernando Alonso and then Ecclestone became criticising Pirelli for doing they were asked for (tyre degradation) by contradicting himself and saying that he didn’t ask for tyres that degrade so quickly
        Being neutral or not or loving/hating Red Bull is not the case, i was just saying facts maybe that bothers some people

    2. It worked this year so it will probably happen the next time they need it. It’s so funny Bernie now says Horner should be the one to replace him if that would be necessary.

      1. Want me to list the teams that asked for the tyres to be changed after Silverstone? Or are you just having too much fun spreading such odious trash?

      2. @ @force-maikel
        +1 you were just reading my mind

    3. Thats just plain wrong. Sure Redbull complained about the tires early in the season, but with no result. The tire change was eventually done because of the failures which occured at Silverstone. As an active F1F member you should know that, and i think you do. So no clue why you would state such a thing.

      1. @raceprouk, @me4me
        Like i said many times on this forum that safety is above anything but it’s not that the 2013 tyres were badly made that the change should favor one team or another,one of the main reasons why tyres why tyres were so fragile before the change is that teams were not forced to follow Pirelli’s instructions, the 2012 tyres suited Red Bull very well it was obvious since their introduction in Hungary Red Bull has had a stratospheric pace, Adrian Newey himself said that the change suited Red Bull very well
        And BTW the change of tyres didn’t solve the problem of delamination, the 2012 tyres were still exploding (Sergio Perez in Korea) but no one moaned about that because Red Bull were winning, As an active F1F member you should know that too

  2. Am I the only one who doesn’t buy the fact that RBR said they “got al the data” they needed?
    I don’t think it will be very relevant for next season. Or do they mean ‘using slick tyres in wet conditions’-data?

    On the same note:
    Anthony Davidson said on the live broadcast that “they must be very good and confident if they can get enough data from 1.5 laps of wet driving with slicks” That sounds very gullible to me that he actually believes the message…

    1. Teams get data from Pirelli and they use it in their simulators. The conditions weren’t good enough to get meaningful data on the compounds but most likely they were just looking for reference data to calibrate a few things. 1.5 laps is enough for this.

    2. Ride height was probably the only thing they thought they could get and RBR seem to make the most of ride height manipulation.

    3. They wanted to gather aero & suspension data, Thats why that had sensors all over the back of the car.

      The size/shape of the tyre affects the airflow over/around them so getting data on that will assist when it comes to understanding how best to direct the airflow around the car.
      The tyre construction also affects the suspension & ride height as different tyre constructions have different squash & flex in the sidewall’s & getting some data on that allows better optimization of suspension setup.

      The running they did would not have got them all the data they would have liked to get, But it will have given them enough to give an idea of what there dealing with.

    4. Yeah, I also got the impression that Rocky meant “this is all the data we’ll be able to get”, which isn’t very much.

      Still, this is an example of why Red Bull is so dominant. Any information they got from this could be something the other teams don’t know yet.

    5. last year only Ferrari/Lotus and Force India have made the tyres working from the data that they gathered in a whole dry practise session

  3. Well, this sucks…. as if engine reliability isn´t going to be a big enough concern, they now throw the cherry on top by not allowing testing of the new 2014 tyres! Great, just great…. I wonder who was the genius that came up with this one. *feeling disgusted*

  4. Chris (@tophercheese21)
    23rd November 2013, 9:57

    I don’t understand why Pirelli choose to only test these prototypes at the FINAL weekend.

    Wouldn’t it be better to bring the prototypes to UAE, USA and Brazil?
    That way you’re guaranteed (at least) some dry running, on three very different circuits.

    I don’t know how slim Pirelli’s wallet is, but only testing at the final round, in a climate that’s not unfamiliar to a bit of rain, seems a bit silly.

    1. +1 Pirelli are just stupid, I’m sure the tyres were already ready at COTA …

      So, RB is the only one who tested the 2014 prototypes? If they have the best car AND the best tyre management next year, that will be awful :D

    2. @tophercheese21,@paeschli
      The problem here is not Pirelli’s problem, the production of the tyres is scheduled months before and the luck of testing does only make it worse by slowing down the production process, the FIA seem to be absolutely uncooperative, i don’t understand all this paranoia of tyre testing ?? cost cutting ?? Disguised component testing ???? ******** . All the teams are based in europe what is the cost of teams making a one day test at Barcelona or Silverstone , last year Ferrari offered the Mugello circuit for free for 3 days testing, the FIA can send observers to the teams and force them not to use any new component over the 2013 cars with the reserve drivers behind the wheels that has no experience in F1 to prevent teams running experienced reserve drivers like De Larosa or Paffet
      It seems that Jean Todt is putting the pressure on Pirelli to force them quitting the sport to let the space for a french manufacturer because the luck of testing==bad tyres && bad tyres == bad reputation && bad reputation == loss of money

      1. Chris (@tophercheese21)
        23rd November 2013, 13:43

        @tifoso1989

        It seems that Jean Todt is putting the pressure on Pirelli

        Evil master yoda.

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