Formula 1 2013 - How To Solve A Problem Like Pirelli

The Solution

It isn€™t as simple as handing the teams a harder, more durable tyre that doesn€™t degrade to make things more focused on racing again. Should the tyres be designed to allow hard racing that shows the pace of the cars €“ Yes. Should this happen immediately for 2013 €“ No. There€™s good reason for this. The biggest complainer about the tyres has been Red Bull, moaning that their car has pace that can€™t be utilised because the tyres wear out too fast, with Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz claiming the sport has €œnothing to do with racing any more.€ Curious how he never said anything of the kind when his team made F1 into a joke in 2011, dominating untouchably with a car that had pace that was too good to be true, with Vettel wrapping up the drivers title in Japan with four races still to go and a huge margin over second-placed Jenson Button. Similarly, in 2012 Christian Horner bemoaned the tyres and their degradation when Red Bull suffered in Canada, but didn€™t have a word to say about it when they managed them perfectly in Bahrain earlier in the year to take victory. In 2011, Vettel won the Spanish Grand Prix on a 4-stop strategy, just like Fernando Alonso did last weekend, but it wasn€™t an issue then, so why is it now, aside from the fact the boot is on the other foot? Red Bull€™s attitude towards the tyre situation is like that of a petulant child, complaining now that things aren€™t going their way, and what was once on their side is now a thorn in it. Because of this, their attempted pressure needs to be strongly rebuffed by Pirelli and the FIA, as it would be unfair to bow to it. With Adrian Newey and seemingly limitless resources at their disposal, there is no doubt that their latest machine has the highest fundamental aerodynamic downforce on the grid, and a switch to tyres more akin to what Bridgestone supplied in 2010 would only serve to help them far more than other teams and deliver the fans a swing back to Red Bull sweeping every race again to another inevitable championship, much like someone turning a video game back onto easy mode because they couldn€™t hack anything tougher. Moving to a new tyre now would quite simply be unfair on the teams that have managed to design their cars to utilise it effectively. All teams were supplied with 2013 specification tyres at the final race of 2012 in Brazil, so as to have performance data to use over the winter to develop their cars. Everyone had this, and Lotus and Ferrari have clearly done a much better job of adapting their cars to the constraints of this rubber to produce machines with better balance and mechanical grip characteristics that help to keep the Pirelli in the right operating window. This is what Formula 1 has long been about, designing to the regulations to maximise the ability to cope with every demand of a competitive season, and is why we€™ve seen teams rise and fall. Why should things be changed now to help out those that didn€™t do the job as well as others, eliminating the advantage of the dedicated engineers in teams that got it right? To win in Formula 1, you have to be and build the best, because nothing less will do. Those that do deserve the spoils of victory, and everyone else deserves to follow them over the line. Pirelli however announced this week that they would be introducing revised tyres for the Canadian Grand Prix, earlier than their original suggestion of the British Grand Prix. Their aim is the get closer to the two-to-three stop races originally intended, rather than the three-to-four stop strategies we€™ve seen so far. Also, they said the changes to the tyres would stop the delamination incidents. Whilst this puts the focus correctly on safety, and is working to the original proposals for when they entered the sport, I worry it will damage the competitive championship we€™ve witnessed so far, and unfairly strip the advantage from those that earned it.
 
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Self-confessed Geek; Aerospace Engineer with a passion for Formula 1, Engineering, Science and Cinema.