Pirelli 2013 tires raise drivers’ concerns in Barcelona

For its third year as the exclusive tire supplier for Formula 1, Pirelli has once again decided to revise the composition of its compounds to challenge the teams with new challenges and to maintain the level of spectacle as in recent years. Following the first tests of the season, held in Jerez de la Frontera, in the south of Spain, Paul Hembery, director of competition at Pirelli, made an initial positive assessment: It seems that we have achieved our goals, which are to have tires that find their optimal grip more quickly and benefit from a longer performance peak. Our intention was to offer greater mechanical grip in order to reduce the importance of aerodynamics.

However, back in Spain for a second private testing session, this time at the Catalunya circuit in Barcelona, the drivers and teams quickly observed excessive tire degradation on a track that was supposedly less demanding than Jerez: “It’s extreme. The degradation is very tough,” reacted Sergio Pérez (McLaren). “It’s a big surprise because normally, during winter testing, we observe significant tire degradation but never this much. We are going to race here, so it’s a concern, but we continue to learn about the tires and I hope that when the real season starts, it will have changed […] because if we have this situation in Melbourne, we are going to make seven to ten pit stops.”

Author of a four-stop race simulation on Thursday afternoon, Romain Grosjean admitted in the evening the difficulties he encountered at the wheel of the Lotus E21: « It was hard, very hard! The tires degrade enormously. I think that during the first stint, I said on the radio from the second lap that the tires were dead but I had 66 laps to go, so we try to do our best, to adapt our driving style: to be honest, it’s not easy. » The Lotus driver nevertheless managed to sustain a 24-lap stint on medium tires: « It was quite an impressive stint. We tried to work as hard as we could and to discuss with the guys on the radio about what we could do to help the tires last longer. »

The Frenchman is not worried about this excessive degradation, which he attributes to the weather conditions: « I think the conditions haven’t helped or aren’t representative of what we should have [during the season, ed]. The cold here doesn’t make things easy for the tires, but it’s different from what we had last year, and we need to change a lot of things to make it work perfectly. »

Same sentiment from Daniel Ricciardo’s side: “The Pirellis are obviously a challenge,” the Australian noted after his two days of testing, Tuesday and Wednesday, with ESPNF1. “It’s obviously only the first days and the track conditions are very cold. We’re probably not going to encounter these types of conditions often during the regular season, but [the tires] are a challenge for the moment. It’s not certain if this is what Pirelli had in mind or what they expected, but some operating windows for the tire have been changed this year—I think actually all of them have—and maybe we haven’t reached the right operating window to really see what these tires are supposed to be.”

Aware of the challenges faced by the drivers and their teams this week, Paul Hembery aims to be reassuring: « The conditions we had in Barcelona are far from typical of the rest of the season, with temperatures, both in the air and on the track, much cooler than what we will normally have during the races, and even a bit of rain on the last day. This took the tires out of their operating window, creating issues such as graining. The conditions particularly didn’t suit the super-soft tires due to the track layout and the abrasiveness of the surface, combined with the cold temperatures. Adding to this the fact that the teams are still making significant setup changes to their cars and trying all of our tires to optimize their package, we saw degradation levels that are not usual. » And the Briton adds: « As soon as we get to Melbourne, the tires should more closely align with their operating window, which will eliminate the major unusual issues some teams have encountered. »

Here, in any case, is something to open the discussion about organizing tests in Europe, in the middle of winter. After Ferrari and Toyota decided for a few years to go their separate ways by running on the Sakhir circuit in Bahrain, a collective private testing session was scheduled there in 2011 before being canceled due to the country’s deteriorating political situation. Since then, India and Qatar have expressed the desire to host winter tests, particularly highlighting the climatic conditions that are more representative of what the teams typically face during the season. Pirelli would be in favor anyway: “I think next year we should maybe go to Bahrain or Abu Dhabi,” said Paul Hembery to the Brazilian newspaper O Estado de Sao Paulo, following the first winter tests that took place at the Jerez circuit.