Pirelli expects to confirm the new prototype construction, which teams tested today, will be raced from the next round of the championship.
Formula 1’s official tyre supplier brought a new construction of the rear C4 compound for teams to test at the Red Bull Ring. Pirelli’s head of motorsport Mario Isola said teams and drivers were pleased with its performance.“The feedback from drivers was positive,” said Isola. “Somebody found a bit more traction in the first laps and somebody commented that the new prototype is very similar to the current C4.
“At the end of the day, that was the target, because we know that the new construction is more robust, that we want to introduce it to have an additional margin on this new construction. But we didn’t want to change the behaviour and the balance or to ask the teams to make any set-up adjustments when they move to the new construction. That was confirmed in general.”
Pirelli will inspect all the data received from teams before making a final decision on whether to use the new construction in its nominated compounds for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone in two weeks’ time. Some teams also intend to run the prototype tyres again in final practice tomorrow.
“We are going to receive the data tonight so we want to take a bit of time to analyse the data to finalise. Also, it is collecting the feedback also tomorrow morning. But to be honest, I don’t see a reason why we shouldn’t introduce it in Silverstone.”
Teams were asked to reduce the pressure of the prototype tyres by 2psi compared to the regular C4 when they ran them in today’s test. Pirelli expects to confirm its decision for the British GP tomorrow.
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Coventry Climax
3rd July 2021, 3:00
Some teams will benefit, others will be hurt. And I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Mercedes suddenly manages to pick up the pace again, on these new spec tyres.
Suspicions, that’s what you get when you don’t want to admit that your product had a design error, namely that there was a problem with the inside wall. They actually admitted the latter, be it in difficult wording, but still wouldn’t admit their product simply was at fault. Instead they came up with new directives, in other words, they blamed the (stricken) teams.
And now the new spec tyres.
I’ve yet to see if they are without problems.
Balue (@balue)
3rd July 2021, 7:02
That’s the worst part. We’ve got this perfect battle for the championship going, and then this could potentially upset the whole balance for no good reason other than F1 supposedly being unable to monitor tyre pressures in races when that should be perfectly doable.
Alex
3rd July 2021, 10:13
Sadly I can see this happening as well. You just know Mercedes will get back their 1 second a lap advamtage
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
3rd July 2021, 3:59
Supposedly this year’s tyre has a stronger construction than the one used last season, the 2021 tyre was heavily tested and in order to be stronger it has a new shape and construction and it is significantly heavier. Baku happens and then immediately pirelli comes up with a tyre that is exactly the same as the original 2021 but better, stronger at lower psi. Bizarre.
Is pirelli going to stop at the c4 or will they patch all rears?
RandomMallard (@)
3rd July 2021, 7:52
@peartree My understanding is that it will be all rear tyres. With the speed these new tyres have been produced (after Baku), I wouldn’t be surprised if these tyres are the stronger ones that were proposed for 2020 but that the teams voted down in late-2019.
Andy Bunting (@wildbiker)
3rd July 2021, 6:47
SO? Albeit in a very roundabout way.
Despite throwing enough shade at the teams to keep an elephant cool.
Pirelli did have a problem with the tyres that burst.