The new hard Pirelli tire divides opinion

For several weeks, Pirelli had been working on developing a more durable hard tire, which was decided to be introduced for this Spanish Grand Prix after several testing and development sessions. However, at the end of the first day, these new tires are not unanimous, starting with Lewis Hamilton: « The super-hard tire is a disaster, so it wasn’t pleasant to drive. There’s a two-second difference, and they don’t last that long » complained the 2008 world champion. « I don’t know why they brought this tire, because I thought the other one was pretty good. […] We lose two and a half seconds per lap with them, then we switch to the soft tires, and it’s fantastic. I think you’ll see more people on the soft tires this weekend. »

Paul Hembery, the head of competition at Pirelli, did not hesitate to respond: « I do not deny that it is slower, that it has less grip, but we must look at the positive points. […] We were asked for more difference between the soft and hard tires. If you think back to Istanbul, where the hard tires lasted one or two more laps than the soft ones and were less performant, it had no strategic impact. What we see now – with variations between the teams – is that there is a difference in durability of 10 to 14 laps between the soft and hard tires. Some teams have a very good lifespan […] but I don’t want to say who because it will be important for their strategy on Sunday. »

The Pirelli boss, however, acknowledges that the new hard tires are still perfectible: « In terms of performance, we recorded a gap of two seconds, which is more than what we saw in testing. But […] the soft tire loses two-tenths per lap and the hard tire one-tenth. This means that the hard tire will really play a role in terms of strategy, which was not the case before. »

But Paul Hembery is particularly surprised to discover these criticisms only today: « Why didn’t they tell us this when we evaluated them in Malaysia and Turkey? Perhaps they didn’t test them correctly or didn’t take them seriously enough. »

Jenson Button acknowledged it a little earlier in the day: “I think it’s the first time I was driving with them,” he confided. “In the other races, we didn’t use them because we were trying to gain experience with the hard tires we had, so it was a shock. I don’t know if other people are struggling with them or not. We all have to work with the same tires, so we need to make the best of them. […] However, I don’t think we’ll do more than one stint with them.”

On the Scuderia side, they put things into perspective: « These are the tires we will have for the race, such is the situation. […] Nothing will change in the short term and we must make the most of them, because for the qualifications and the race, it will be very tough. It will be another challenge for the drivers and the teams. »

Fernando Alonso hopes that some will take risks in qualifying: « Now, it’s difficult to think about passing Q1 with hard tires, so I think 95% of the drivers will use a set of soft tires from Q1. We’ll see if anyone takes the risk [but] I don’t know what margin Red Bull had today. »

Red Bull, in fact, was not spared by the surprise effect either, and Mark Webber admits that he did not achieve the desired performance but draws the moral of the story: « Ultimately, I think Pirelli is still learning as we go along. »