The GPDA agrees to have fewer tires in 2012
Pirelli is expected to soon submit a request to the FIA to review the tire allocation for the 2012 season, and this approach is now reportedly supported by the Grand Prix Drivers' Association (GPDA), which could speed things up.
Since the beginning of the year, Pirelli has often ended up with a set of hard tires unused for each driver at the end of the Grand Prix, and this set of tires must ultimately be destroyed, as revealed by the magazine *Autosport* this week. Paul Hembery, Pirelli’s head of competition, stated that the GPDA had written to the Italian manufacturer to support them in their desire to see the tire allocation changes for the 2012 season.
The GPDA read the story on the Autosport website, and they were informed of the situation, and they wanted to know what was going on. They said it was silly to have all these unused tires and they think that if we’re not going to use them, there’s no point in bringing them for each race weekend, Paul Hembery said at a fan forum organized by FOTA in Italy this Wednesday.
On /f1/actualite/11222-Pirelli-veut-arreter-de-gaspiller-des-pneus.html, each driver is allocated 11 sets of slick tires each weekend with the following distribution: 5 sets of soft tires and 6 sets of hard tires. But after Friday’s free practice sessions, teams return all their tires to receive four sets of soft tires and four sets of hard tires on Saturday. After free practice 3, each team must return one set of hard tires and one set of soft tires. So, if you’ve been following, this leaves each driver with three sets of hard tires and three sets of soft tires for the qualifying session and the race.
But Pirelli realized that there was at least one set of tires unused at the end of the race, most often a set of hard tires because teams use all their soft tires. Paul Hembery had explained wanting to change tire allocations for 2012, and he seems to have found a strong ally to change the regulations with the support of the GPDA.
