Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton are unimpressed with Formula 1’s new tyre rule, saying fans saw less track action on Friday because of it.
F1 is trialling its Alternative Tyre Allocation format this weekend. Under the rules drivers receive 11 sets of slick tyres for the three days instead of 13 and have tighter restrictions on when they may use the tyres.After first practice was affected by rain, most drivers used two sets of tyres in the dry second session. However Verstappen and the two Mercedes drivers decided to maximise the number of fresh tyre sets they have for the rest of the weekend and only used a single set each.
Verstappen, who did 18 laps in the second practice session, said the new format created a poor spectacle for fans.
“We haven’t actually used a lot of tyre sets today,” said the Red Bull driver. “With this new format, you’re just super-limited with the tyres that you can use.
“So we’ll have to see what we can do to improve that because really you’re just saving times which I think is not the correct thing.”
The ATA was introduced in order to reduce the number of tyres F1 takes to races and therefore cut waste, freight and emissions. However Hamilton believes this could be done more effectively by reducing the number of wet weather tyres taken to each race.
“We only had one tyre that we were going to use this session so it’s not really a great format this change they made for this weekend,” he said. “It just means we get less running, so not ideal.
“There’s a lot of wet tyres that I think they throw away after every weekend, like, a lot and maybe they should look at something like that rather than taking time on track away from the fans.”
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2023 Hungarian Grand Prix
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ryanoceros (@ryanoceros)
21st July 2023, 19:12
Keep the tires, ban private jets to the race instead. They either have no idea what they are doing making such a rule or there is an other reason for the new tire allocation.
Nick T.
21st July 2023, 20:21
Great point IMO or at least make them share private jets (omg, the discomfort!).
Less tires for carbon neutrality’s sake is just ridiculous. Might as well make it a European only championship at that point.
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
21st July 2023, 20:47
Or, more likely, no races in Europe, 12 in the Middle East and twenty in the States.
MacLeod (@macleod)
22nd July 2023, 0:07
I think Max already shares his private jet with several of the drivers but he doesn’t use it if the races are close to drive.
Mayrton
22nd July 2023, 9:26
Levelling the playing field is the motive behind any change.
Ajayrious (@ajayrious)
21st July 2023, 19:17
I see Lewis’s point regarding the Wet tyres, but we’ve been through that rule change before in 2003. And we immediately ended up in a Grand Prix (that year’s race in Interlagos) where no-one had the correct tyres for the conditions, and the rule was promptly scrapped.
Of course if Pirelli could actually make a decent wet tyre, then they could do away with the Intermediates like they do in F2 and F3, but im sure as soon as that rule change got announced the same drivers who come out against tyre warmers being banned would be saying its unsafe not to have those tyres.
SadF1fan
21st July 2023, 19:46
It’s just incredibly silly they go out of their way to limit track time as much as possible…
Jere (@jerejj)
21st July 2023, 19:51
I didn’t think track running in FP2 was necessarily more scarce than usual, not to mention, thanks to Checo & rain, not many dry sets got used in FP1 anyway, which minimizes the impact.
Kev makes a good point that I read on Motorsport-dot-com.
Perhaps, the same format as in the 2020 Emilia-Romagna GP, i.e., FP3-QLF-Race, would suffice for standard, with sprint events having five as presently, or perhaps something different for majority events, i.e., time trial session beside standard qualifying.
Richard
21st July 2023, 19:54
Knowing how Liberty Media think around things – wouldn’t surprise me if this is a deliberate ploy to make two Practice session events so unpalatable, that they force majeure in more Sprints as some supposed ‘saviour’ for the fans
MEGATRON M12 (@megatron)
21st July 2023, 20:17
Get rid of pirelli and ALL these tire problems will disappear. Pirelli tires can not take full F1 loads for a long times, especially at tracks with prolonged high speed sections like Spa, Baku and Silverstone. Pirelli are forced to install a thermal fuse into their tires to stop the teams from putting too much energy thru the tires for too long a period of time, otherwise their tires will disintegrate because of an inherent weakness where the sidewall connects with the tire tread.
If F1 went to the 2005 rule where 1 set of tires for the entire race, there would be far less tires to ship around the world and there would be less marbles off line and more action would be out on track rather than in the pits. They could also reintroduce a tire war in a much fairer way, each tire manufacturer brings 1 tire spec per race and provides every team 2 sets for Friday practice after which the teams must choose which manufacturer they will run for the race, pirelli would quickly be run out of F1.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
21st July 2023, 20:21
The problem with F1, is that it is owned by people who don’t think much of the spectators, and see the sport as pure entertainment. They believe changing rules and banning things make the world a better place. These people don’t really get competition, even if Red Bull don’t mind to keep trying :) Ironic, I really hope Red Bull just keep winning. All the teams that want to pray to their sustainable gods in the sky can keep losing, despite all the gimmicks being brought on board to cause ‘chaos’ in the order. F1 used to be about innovation, innovation that helped win a war, and celebrated achievement, but the rule makers have made it about their egos.
Nick T.
21st July 2023, 20:23
Uh, yeah, this is a whole lot of nonsense.
x303 (@x303)
21st July 2023, 22:26
Couldn’t say it any better.
Ciaran (@ciaran)
21st July 2023, 20:48
@pcxmac You know the FIA brought this change in and not Liberty, right?
Tifoso1989 (@tifoso1989)
22nd July 2023, 10:55
It appears that the power struggle between F1 and the FIA, along with the involvement of law/audit/accounting firms contracted by Liberty, raises questions about the sport’s direction. The focus on maximizing profits by shareholders has caused concerns about the sport’s well-being. F1 lost its essence the day Ecclestone sold it to a private equity back in 2005.
t1redmonkey (@t1redmonkey)
21st July 2023, 20:27
I just hate the whole tyre management thing in F1 these days. Just let them use decent tyres that aren’t going to fall to pieces if they push for a few laps.
Imre (@f1mre)
21st July 2023, 21:06
They don’t fall into pieces. They can push for many laps without issues.
MEGATRON M12 (@megatron)
22nd July 2023, 14:56
Complete nonsense
Stephen Crowsen (@drycrust)
21st July 2023, 20:56
Why aren’t tyres made with a useby date instead of just being discarded at the end of a weekend? It is entirely understandable for the unused food to be discarded at the end of a Grand prix, but surely the shelf life of a tyre is more than a week? After all, if you go to get new tyres for your car, which are probably cheap compared to these tyres, it could easily be the tyres have sat on the rack for several months.
x303 (@x303)
21st July 2023, 22:35
You can’t keep tyres around indefinitely because they degrade chemically. F1 tyres being way more soft than your road car tyres’ are even more fragile. Factor in all the logistics involved (Pirelli produces their tyres in Izmir in Turkey before shipping them around the world) and you have a short used by date.
UNeedAFinn2Win (@uneedafinn2win)
21st July 2023, 22:36
The tyres used in racing in general and in f1 specifically have very few similarities with road tyres. They both look black and round, but that’s about it. Not a lot transfers between the two, the requirements are so different
MEGATRON M12 (@megatron)
22nd July 2023, 14:58
Once the tire are mounted to rims they must be destroyed to be removed from those rims.
NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
21st July 2023, 22:00
Lol bann private jets, and keep unused tirea.
What a joke F1 is.
Arbitrary rules with 0 common sense.
Rock
21st July 2023, 22:15
Once again trying to prove F1 is “green”. When are they going to stop that farce?
Curtis Froscheiser
21st July 2023, 23:08
Lots of talk about tires and being environmentally responsible. May they should go back to the tires they used in the 60’s that lasted the whole race. That would even things up.
Coventry Climax
21st July 2023, 23:14
Anyone with an IQ larger than their shoesize could have predicted this would happen, and will again next time.
I’m sure the FIA – in ‘conjunction’ with LM – will come up with another ridiculous remedy to a ‘problem’ they created themselves.
Don’t be surprised if this is only about creating reasons to scrap friday’s FP’s altogether, in order to have more two day race weekends fit into the calendar.
MichaelN
22nd July 2023, 0:05
So Verstappen being “super limited” led to him doing 18 laps instead of the 25 he did in last year’s FP2?
Did he really need a whole other set of four tyres at to drive 7 more laps? That’s 30 kilometers.
F1’s tyre usage is supremely wasteful. It’s high time for more durable compounds. Even just the kind of compounds Michelin makes for Hypercar could easily cut tyre usage in half, and those are still very fine race tyres.
SjaakFoo (@sjaakfoo)
22nd July 2023, 7:14
Sure, it’s only nearly 30% less laps and data. That is nothing.
Oh, wait.
Imre (@f1mre)
22nd July 2023, 7:50
That 7 laps is a qualifying simulation.