Pirelli’s tenure as tire supplier for the Formula 1 world championship could charitably be described as rocky, and that was even before the 2013 season started. The tire maker came on board in 2011 with just one primary instruction from the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA): provide tires that will make for exciting racing. After four years of bulletproof reliability from Bridgestone products, the FIA wanted rubber that wouldn’t last quite so long, which would force teams to get creative with their pit strategies. Pirelli met the requirement, but still came in for occasional criticism in each of the past two seasons. But 2011 and 2012 must seem like a walk through the rose garden compered to this year, when Pirelli’s tires have become the most discussed aspect of the championship.
Problems began to mount before this season even began. After two years of delivering “exciting” tires, Pirelli opted to introduce softer compounds across its range for 2013 in an effort to further spice up pit strategy. Teams got their first taste of the rubber at last year’s season-ending race in Brazil, but the finalized specification wasn’t available until the annual winter test, which was held in Barcelona this year. It was there that teams reported “extreme” degradation, which Pirelli attributed to the cold weather of northern Spain in February, noting that it did not expect such wear to be the norm for the season.
But degradation continued to be a prevailing topic even as the season kicked off in Australia. In the following four rounds (Malaysia, China, Bahrain, and Spain), at least one driver suffered a delamination—the separation of the tread from the carcass of the tire—at some point during the race weekend. Degradation was so widepread in Spain that the majority of the field stopped for new tires four times, meeting—perhaps excessively—Pirelli’s goal of forcing drivers to stop at least twice. Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, who started from second, received numerous radio messages to slow his pace in an effort to ease the wear of the tires, to which he responded, “I can’t drive any slower,” before finishing 12th and out of the points.
Felipe Massa suffered a spectacular tire failure at this year’s British Grand Prix.
Pirelli knew it had to take action, so it invited Ferrari to participate in a secret tire test ahead of the Spanish GP to evaluate its options. F1 regs stipulate that teams cannot test with current-spec cars or its top drivers within the season—excepting FIA-sanctioned tests, of course—so Ferrari supplied a 2011-specification car. Red Bull declined an invitation, citing a breach of the rules, although that didn’t prove a problem for Mercedes, which tested with its current car and current drivers Hamilton and Nico Rosberg after the race in Barcelona. Mercedes was subsequently banned from participating in this month’s Young Drivers Test at Silverstone—a chance to put young drivers through their paces—as punishment.
Speaking of Silverstone, the British GP wasn’t kind to Pirelli. McLaren driver Sergio Perez suffered a catastrophic left-rear tire failure during Friday practice. The same fate befell Hamilton on lap eight of the race while leading from pole, followed shortly thereafter by a sudden left rear failure on Felipe Massa’s Ferrari. Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne left rear went a few laps later, showering Kimi Räikkönen with debris near the end of Silverstone’s 190-mph Hangar Straight. Oh, and Perez suffered a second blowout in the closing stages of the race just for good measure. Tires pulled off the cars of race-winner Rosberg and one-time-race-leader Sebastian Vettel showed what were believed to be signs of imminent failure, too.
Since the British Grand Prix, Pirelli has issued a statement blaming the failures on teams running left-side tires on the right side of the car and right-side tires on the left (thereby running them in reverse), underinflation, increased camber rates, and overly aggressive curbing in Silverstone’s high-speed corners. Our sources in the Formula 1 paddock liken Pirelli’s attempts to deflect blame to “clutching at straws.” The swapping of rear tires has been common practice for teams throughout the season; Pirelli knew this and didn’t move to put a stop to it. Our sources tell us that the front-running teams were operating with tire pressures and camber angles well within the normal operating range. We hear the real reason Pirelli is shifting blame is that the supplier simply can’t admit that its tires are unsafe for fear of “catastrophic” media attention. (Shades of the 2005 U.S. GP?)
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Despite the brand’s failure to own up to its products’ shortcomings, one could make the case that Pirelli deserves some slack. Regulations that restrict testing of modern cars has resulted in tire evaluation being conducted using a 2010-spec Renault. While that may not seem so old, consider that every F1 car is considered obsolete by season’s end, and it’s estimated that just five percent of components carry over to the following year. This means that the tires are undergoing different stresses during the tests than they are in races.
As one remedy, Pirelli introduced a prototype Kevlar-belted (as opposed to the 2013-spec’s steel belt) tire in Montreal, but practice sessions there were largely washed out, leaving the company with precious little data. Pirelli proposed bringing that tire to Silverstone, but it was vetoed by Ferrari, Lotus, and Force India—all of whom appear to have a handle on how to get the best out of the steel-belted tires. Those teams have since withdrawn those vetoes on safety grounds, and the tire was used at the German Grand Prix.
Pirelli has said that it will introduce a new range of tires at the Hungarian GP at the end of month. That rubber will be tested at the Young Drivers Test, which the FIA wisely turned into a full-blown tire test, one open to 2013 cars and grand prix drivers. Mercedes originally decided against petitioning for a reinstatement to the event, saying that the test is about solving Pirelli’s safety issues rather than gathering data, but has since changed its stance. Red Bull’s Christian Horner, naturally, has publicly stated his belief that the original penalty against Mercedes should be upheld.
Between the controversies and the fact that its contract expires at the end of the year, Pirelli’s future as Formula 1′s tire supplier remains uncertain. It’s been reported that the Italian brand already has an agreement to re-up in place with Bernie Ecclestone and the vast majority of teams, requiring just final consent from the FIA to make it official. Those reports surfaced prior to the British GP fiasco, though, and it’s unclear whether or not that’s still the case. (Michelin, the manufacturer at the center of the disastrous 2005 U.S. GP, is said to be interested in a return to Formula 1 should the FIA decide against keeping Pirelli.) There’s a belief in the paddock that the series will continue to demand ‘entertaining’ tires from any supplier, so it’s likely that rubber will continue to be a hot-button issue for the foreseeable future.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/caranddriver/blog/~3/4Aq7JZBoeco/
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