Pirelli has revised its tyre compound allocations for the Brazilian Grand Prix following complaints from drivers.
Felipe Massa was among those who criticised the original choice of hard and medium tyres for the race at Interlagos as too conservative given the recent resurfacing at the track and potential for low temperatures during the race.
Pirelli will now provide the soft and medium tyres for the penultimate round of the championship.
“We’ve always said that we would be open to any changes if they were required,” said Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery.
“After further technical analysis of the impact of the revised circuit surface, together with a risk assessment suggesting a low probability of compound overheating due to extreme track temperatures, we have made this change with the unanimous agreement of all 11 teams.”
2014 F1 tyre allocations
| Circuit | 2014 Option | 2014 Prime | 2013 Option | 2013 Prime |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Melbourne | Soft | Medium | Super Soft | Medium |
| Sepang | Medium | Hard | Medium | Hard |
| Shanghai | Soft | Medium | Soft | Medium |
| Bahrain | Soft | Medium | Soft | Hard |
| Catalunya | Medium | Hard | Medium | Hard |
| Monte-Carlo | Super Soft | Soft | Super Soft | Soft |
| Montreal | Super Soft | Soft | Super Soft | Medium |
| Red Bull Ring | Super Soft | Soft | n/a | n/a |
| Silverstone | Medium | Hard | Medium | Hard |
| Hockenheimring | Super Soft | Soft | n/a | n/a |
| Hungaroring | Soft | Medium | Soft | Medium |
| Spa-Francorchamps | Soft | Medium | Medium | Hard |
| Monza | Medium | Hard | Medium | Hard |
| Singapore | Super Soft | Soft | Super Soft | Medium |
| Suzuka | Medium | Hard | Medium | Hard |
| Sochi | Soft | Medium | n/a | n/a |
| Circuit of the Americas | Soft | Medium | Medium | Hard |
| Interlagos | Soft | Medium | Medium | Hard |
| Yas Marina | Super Soft | Soft | Soft | Medium |
2014 Brazilian Grand Prix
Image © Pirelli/Hone
PhilEReid (@philereid)
17th October 2014, 12:05
Genuinely didn’t expect that. Well played Pirelli! I did think the tyre choice was too conservative so actually changing their minds taking criticism on board. Kudos.
KeithR (@)
17th October 2014, 13:01
+1. Well done Pirelli. Everyone makes mistakes, then the class act is to not to dig in.
Gotta say well done Felipe Baby, too. I love it when F1 players dare to criticise the mothership.
nidzovski (@nidzovski)
17th October 2014, 12:06
Massa wins ha!
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
17th October 2014, 19:45
Massa and Ferrari and any team but Mercedes, in the end its the sensible decision, Interlagos shouldn’t be a hard tyre circuit, and it should bunch the pack even if it doesn’t the order of the field. Some drivers are harder on tyres they also have preferences but I suspect that this decision came from Bernie not the drivers.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
17th October 2014, 12:12
Poor Pirelli… what a nightmare for them…
Robbie (@robbie)
17th October 2014, 12:22
Why?
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
17th October 2014, 16:17
@robbie because no matter what they do, no matter what happens, be it degradation or durability, they always get criticized…
hzh (@hzh00)
17th October 2014, 21:20
Yeah why?
bsnaylor (@bsnaylor)
17th October 2014, 12:16
common sense wins! (and Massa) :)
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
17th October 2014, 12:25
Massa wins? I’ll believe that when I see it… he used to be unbeatable around Interlagos, though.
bsnaylor (@bsnaylor)
17th October 2014, 12:46
:)
Ilham Shaq (@hahailham1)
17th October 2014, 12:55
maybe he means massa opinion wins, because he was so vocal voicing the tyre change at interlagos
ColdFly F1 (@)
17th October 2014, 12:37
What happened with the ‘rule’ of having 2 non-consecutive compounds per race? Last time that happened was SING last year.
Imre (@f1mre)
17th October 2014, 12:48
I think they should scrap one compound and concentrate on the other three. And they should give all three compound to the teams. 2-2-2 each for the quali and race. (or 3 from the softest) Also 2-2 each for the FPs.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
17th October 2014, 21:42
@coldfly There’s never been any such rule.
TMF (@)
17th October 2014, 12:47
Massa’s drama-queen shouldn’t be reaffirmed in this way – but actually good that Pirelli listens.
Sumedh
17th October 2014, 13:26
Or may be you know, Massa was right and wasn’t being a drama queen
bsnaylor (@bsnaylor)
17th October 2014, 12:52
its cos they changed the compounds quite a bit for this year i guess, and it was less interesting and more predictable then, 1 set dying after 8 laps, the other doing 50.
Bruno (@bminasi)
17th October 2014, 13:10
Brave Massa criticising tyre choices, props to him!!!
Adam Hardwick (@fluxsource)
17th October 2014, 13:48
Brave would have been retiring from the Japanese GP when he was “screaming” for it to be stopped. If you feel the level of risk is too high, do something about it. Otherwise you’re just whining.
Bruno (@bminasi)
17th October 2014, 14:26
If he retired suzuka when the conditions were bad, i can imagine how many people would doomed him, and if Bianchi hasnt been victimized, the pressure would be much intense, with lot of people making fun of it! Remember that São Paulo race has a very instable climate, going from clean weather to rain in minutes, so a more grip tyres could save a life!
AldoH
17th October 2014, 18:40
With all due respect, sir, but that is just nonsense.
@HoHum (@hohum)
17th October 2014, 22:34
Absolute and total nonsense.
Moriarty
18th October 2014, 18:56
Unless you were able to listen to the pit radio do you know Massa was screaming. Could it just be sensationalism by the media in the aftermath of a terrible afternoon for F1?
Massa had some frightening crashes earlier this year so he is well aware of the risks.
RogerA
17th October 2014, 14:58
For the love of god lets go back to how it used to be & just let the teams & drivers select which tyre compounds they want to use at each race. And while were at it lets also get rid of the absurd rule forcing everyone to run both compounds.
If a driver feels he can run the whole race on softs knowing he’ll have to make 2-3 stops, Let him & equally if someone wants to try the whole race on 1 set of hards planning to not stop at all let them do that.
The whole artificial degredation, Force strategies & mandatory pit stops is starting to really bore me. Give the teams 4 dry compounds & let them go racing on whatever compound they feel is best for there car/setup/driving style that weekend instead of handicapping them based on what Pirelli, The FIA or whoever feel is best for ‘the show’.
Robbie (@robbie)
17th October 2014, 15:31
I don’t disagree in principal, but I think there would be logistics problems in carting all those tires around the world.
RogerA
17th October 2014, 16:59
In which case get teams to inform Pirelli of what 2 compounds they wish to run at least 2 weeks prior to each race so that Pirelli are only shipping out the same number of tyres they do now.
There is also the option of allowing more than 1 tyre supplier so that 1 supplier alone isn’t responsible for shipping tyres to every team.
Anything is better than the way things have been since 2007 with forcing teams to run both compounds, Picking what compounds they run & then artificially making the tyres degrade which for the most part forces everyone down similar strategy routes & in some cases handicaps a certain car/driver if they can’t get a specific compound to work. Its all just so restrictive, Somewhat artificial & its just getting really dull.
@HoHum (@hohum)
17th October 2014, 22:36
Here,here.
MemorableC (@memorablec)
17th October 2014, 15:09
I dont want to hear it from Massa or anyone else if there are more then 3 pitstops because Pirelli brought softer tires.
Rick Lopez (@viscountviktor)
17th October 2014, 16:17
So to all those who said Massa was complaining for no reason… think again…
AldoH
17th October 2014, 18:45
+1. Funny thing is that Alonso also said more or less the same, but nobody came to the forum to say that he is a chicken.
@HoHum (@hohum)
17th October 2014, 22:38
Of course you are right, there was a reason, the reason was Massa needs soft tyres to be competitive.
Iestyn Davies (@fastiesty)
17th October 2014, 16:34
This just makes it clear now that they should have had Super Soft-Soft in Sochi. 7-7-5, rather than their aim of 6-7-6 for usage of each ‘combination’ this year.
Patrick (@paeschli)
17th October 2014, 17:29
Good thing for Williams, they have been awful on the hard compound until now.
hamiltonN1
17th October 2014, 17:47
Massa in Suzuka “It is terrible i can not see”, Hamilton “Charlie we have wasted 2 laps it is ready for inters”.
That right their is the diff between a champion and has been, also why is Massa been given a pass again yet again he as wasted a good car. That is a fact getting beat by his young teammate and behind Alo in a Ferrari.
sato113 (@sato113)
17th October 2014, 18:02
How many stops did a driver make last year? Are we now in for a multi stop race?
Kingshark (@kingshark)
17th October 2014, 18:10
@sato113
Last year we had a 2-stop race with medium and hard tyres.
Robert McKay
17th October 2014, 18:40
Probably the right decision.
But every time I see Paul Hembery appear on TV now I rather think he’s gained the world-weary attitude of a man that knows whatever he and the company he works for do, it’s gonna get criticised. The tyres are too soft or there’s too many pitstops or there’s too many marbles or the drivers can’t push or the tyres explode or the tyres are too hard or the tyre won’t switch on or the race is boring because the tyre won’t degrade or the compounds aren’t right or the wet weather version isn’t very good or….
I just have a feeling Pirelli will pack it up soon, there’s only so much good PR that comes out of being sole supplier and I think they’ll think they’ve had most of it now.
Which would be a shame, because I think they’ve done a lot for F1, so hopefully I’m wrong.
Dizzy
17th October 2014, 22:17
I’m hoping they leave F1 sooner rather than later & take there fake tyres with them!
Watching tyres falling to pieces because thats what there designed to do has been utterly pathetic since 2011.
Likewise watching drivers driving on eggshells, been told not to race the cars around them for fear of killing the tyres & all that has also been utterly pathetic.
Early 2012 was a complete joke as the small tyre operating window made races a lottery, You hit the sweet spot you were competitive but if your car was even the smallest bit outside the operating window you were nowhere & as teams kept saying they had no idea why there car worked on the tyres one weekend & didn’t the next.
Pastor Maldonado more or less dominates the Spanish Gp weekend as the Williams was in the tyre operating window yet neither car nor driver do anything else the rest of the year, Complete Pirelli lottery & a total joke.
Also watching one driver be utterly defenceless against a car on the faster compound or on newer tyres is just as boring to watch as DRS, I want real competitive racing with real overtaking & none of this artificial DRS/Pirelli based highway passing!!!!
DRS & Pirelli are killing F1, Certainly killed my interest in a sport I loved passionately for nearly 40 years!
@HoHum (@hohum)
17th October 2014, 22:46
I’m 100% with Dizzy on this one, I am no longer going to give Pirelli a pass just because Bernie told them to build clown tyres, the tyres should work equally effectively with any setting that provides a full contact area and minimal drag regardless of track temperature.
Breno (@austus)
17th October 2014, 22:09
I wonder if heat will be a problem. Where I live we just had the four hottest days of the year in the last two weeks.
@HoHum (@hohum)
17th October 2014, 22:48
Good, I hope the tyres melt.
katie1978
17th October 2014, 22:19
Ban Pirelli from F1, There tyre be a joke!
I fit Michelin’s on my road car in protest!
Michelin should be allowed in F1 so that tyre tech can once again be pushed & so the drivers get the best tyres possible & not some half baked tyres that are meant to last only a few 10 laps.
bharat (@bharat141)
18th October 2014, 11:53
Last year at few races, they have made tyre choices with option tyre being 2 steps softer than the prime, whereas this year they have chosen only one step softer for all the races. Is there any specific reason for that? Keeping 2 steps between the tyres would throw a lot of options in the strategy front. Also, this year’s compounds are harder and more durable than last year which should help with this. I feel Pirelli are being very conservative and its leading to boring races unless there is an element of weather or a safety car.