Pirelli: no more than three stops during the Spanish Grand Prix

During the 2013 Spanish Grand Prix, Pirelli faced significant difficulties with the wear of its tires. Teams had to make pit stops up to four times.

With this setback in mind, Paul Hembery, the director of Pirelli, thinks it is particularly important that the tires perform well during the Spanish weekend; he tells the site Crash.net: « It is often said that Barcelona is the most representative of the form of an entire season because a car that performs well in Barcelona will perform well everywhere. This is also true for the tires because the Spanish circuit is one of the most demanding tracks we race on all year. »

He explains that the Catalan track is particularly challenging for the tires: long and fast corners like turn 3 put a lot of energy into the tires, resulting in high degradation. The track surface is also quite abrasive, and the ambient temperature can be high, which further increases the workload on the tires.

In 2013 during the race, Jean-Eric Vergne’s right rear tire even exploded. As for Lewis Hamilton, who had to particularly manage his tires subject to very high degradation, he complained over the radio about not being able to drive any slower.

This is why Pirelli hopes that the compounds brought to Barcelona this year will hold up better: « In the past, we have seen up to four stops in Spain. With the changes we have made to the tires this year, we are hopeful of not seeing more than three stops for the majority of drivers. » Last year, Fernando Alonso stopped four times to change tires, which did not prevent him from winning the race.

Finally, he declares himself satisfied to be able to conduct full-scale tests again after a Grand Prix weekend like in Sakhir: “We’ve started our preparations for next year well with the first in-season tire tests in Bahrain. We are eager to take advantage of this work with four teams in Spain after the Grand Prix.”