Pirelli could be less conservative in its tire choices
After being the target of criticism in Spain, particularly for overly cautious tire choices, Pirelli may revise its compound allocation strategy for the upcoming Grand Prix races as teams better understand the tires.
After offering aggressive tires since its return to F1 in 2011, Pirelli was criticized last year, which prompted the Italian firm to be more cautious this year. This does not satisfy everyone in the paddock.
« We were very aggressive in previous seasons, not only to create a challenge at the strategic level but also an engineering challenge for the teams. It worked for some – and perhaps not for others, » Paul Hembery told the official F1 site.
In Spain, Sergio Pérez had similarly criticized Pirelli’s tires and indeed, according to Turun Sanomat, there have been fewer overtakes since the beginning of the year, with 156 overtakes in five Grand Prix compared to 253 last year.
But Pirelli knows that its choices may have been too conservative but this is due to the change in regulations and things could change by the end of the season: « Maybe sometimes we will see during the season – as the cars improve – that probably some of our choices are a bit conservative, because as the teams reduce wheel spin and sliding, it means there are fewer issues with tire overheating – and maybe we will have to review our future choices for the season once we understand the effects of car development. »
