F1 Madness

Tag: tyres

  • F1 2014: Free Practice 1 – Alonso Fastest in China

    F1 2014: Free Practice 1 – Alonso Fastest in China

    Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso ended set the fastest time for the first free practice session in China.

    A relatively quiet session was marked with a track temperature of 18 degrees Celcius for nearly all of the 90 minutes of running. Overcast conditions around the Shanghai International circuit made it more difficult to optimise the tyre temperatures; evident by the fact that several drivers struggled front locking.

    Fernando Alonso set the quickest time of the session, a 1:39:783 but it wasn’t all smooth sailing for the Ferrari team. A steering/front-suspsension issue reduced Kimi Raikkonen’s running to a solitary installation lap. New team principal Marco Mattiacci spent most of the session in the garage.

    Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg was second quickest by the time the chequered flag came out and completed a total of sixteen laps. Lewis Hamilton, eighth position, completed only nine laps as his session was cut short with an unknown issue.

    Felipe Nasr completed the first free practice session for Williams in place of Valtteri Bottas while Giedo van der Garde filled in for Adrian Sutil at Sauber. Marussia’s Jules Bianchi managed to set one flying lap at the end of the session as he recovered from a fuel pressure issue. The Frenchman improved to eighteenth overall on his second flying lap.

    timeschina

  • Singapore GP Preview Quotes – Pirelli

    Singapore GP Preview Quotes – Pirelli

    Here’s what Pirelli motorsport director, Paul Hembery had to say with regards to tyres ahead of this weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix.

    Pirelli
    Paul Hembery, Pirelli motorsport director
    “The tyres we are bringing to Singapore this year represent a change from last year, when we went for supersoft and soft. This is because the tyres are generally softer across the board this year in order to maximise performance and grip. Singapore is quite bumpy – a typical feature of street circuits – and there’s lots of street furniture such as painted white lines and manholes that compromise grip and traction. We’re racing at night, which presents a unique set of parameters for the tyres to deal with when it comes to the way that track and ambient temperatures evolve. The cars also carry the heaviest fuel load of the year, which again has a direct effect on tyre wear and degradation. It’s a long race, and that gives the teams plenty of scope to come up with some interesting strategies at what is a truly spectacular event in every sense. We’ve always been made to feel incredibly welcome at Singapore, which is probably the most spectacular event of the year in terms of the whole show that is put on for the public. Our aim as always is to contribute to that show by providing tyres with exactly the right compromise between performance and degradation in order to guarantee close racing.”

  • F1 2013 News – Pirelli: No new tyres for Silverstone

    Italian tyre manufacturer and Formula 1 supplier Pirelli have announced that it will not run new rear tyres at the British grand prix. pirelli

    A change isn’t going to come after all. Pirelli had been looking for a solution for delamination suffered by drivers this season and opted for a tyre test, this one above board, during the free practice sessions in Canada. The weather conditions in Montreal limited the running that could be done on the experimental tyre and the decision was taken to postpone any modification to the current tyres.

    “We are not going to race with the new tyre as we did not get much of a chance to test it here [in Canada],” said Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery. “We have some internal specification changes – process changes – that we think will go the full way to curing the delamination issue that we have seen. That is good from many points of view, as it means teams will be working with the same tyre they started the year with.But it is probably not good for some teams that are struggling with the front tyre.”

    To combat the delamination Pirelli will introduce a revised bonding procedure to the current tyres in the hopes that the tread remains affixed.

  • Formula 1 2013: Mercedes in secret tyre test row

    The Formula 1 paddock is deeply unhappy after it was revealed that rivals Mercedes had conducted a three-day 1000 kilometer tyre test after the Spanish GP. Nico Rosberg fastest in Monaco

    There has been nowhere for Mercedes to hide on raceday as the team faded badly due to excessive tyre wear throughout the last few grand prix. However, a secret testing session has undoubtedly boosted not only Mercedes’ ability to understand their problems but also given them an advantage over their rivals.

    It has come to light that Pirelli had requested the Brackley based team’s help to work through issues the tyre manufacturer had been suffering in the last several races. Despite the ban on in-season testing Pirelli are allowed to call on one team, for a private test, to assist them with their product. Nevertheless, the other teams are less than happy about Mercedes, a team with clear tyre issues, recieving what they consider an unfair advantage. The matter has now been taken up with the FIA.

    Team principal Ross Brawn said that his team had been working tirelessly on their issues with the Pirelli tyres since Barcelona – 1000 secret kilometers of tireless work it seems Ross.

     

  • F1 2013: Pirelli tyre plans reigned in by FIA

    F1 2013: Pirelli tyre plans reigned in by FIA

    Pirelli’s planned ‘tweaks’ to the 2013 tyres from the Canadian GP onwards has been reigned in by the FIA.

    A ruling made by the sport’s governing body has stipulated that it will only allow changes to be made to the tyres on the grounds of safety. As a result the expected changes will be less significant that intially planned.

    The FIA has clearly stated that it will not accept changes aimed at cutting down on the number of pitstops much less to reduce tyre degradation. Instead of reverting back to 2012 specification tyres Pirelli have been instructed to make adjustment to the current specification of tyres.

    Article 12.6.3 of the technical regulations have been cited by the FIA with regard to their decision. The rule states:

    “Tyre specifications will be determined by the FIA no later than 1 September of the previous season. Once determined in this way, the specification of the tyres will not be changed during the championship season without the agreement of all competing teams.”

    There is however a different clause within the regulations which states that changes could be introduced “if the tyres are deemed by the tyre supplier and technical delegate as technically unsuitable.” But the FIA is adamant that the current ‘issues’ with the 2013 tyres falls within the purview of this rule.

    Pirelli motosport director Paul Hembery admitted that the changes to the tyres would now be of a more modest nature. “Let’s wait and see exactly what changes we will be making, but we are doing everything we can to minimise what will be different,” he said.

    The prospective changes were expected to benefit teams such as Mercedes and Red Bull who have been struggling to get on top of the tyres. In contrast, Ferrari and Lotus will breathe a sigh of relief as they look to maintain their tyre advantage.

     

  • A change is gonna come – Pirelli to change tyres from Canada

    Pirelli have announced that it will make changes to its tyres from the Canadian grand prix onwardpirellis.

    This announcement comes after a raft of criticism has been aimed at the Italian manufacturer. Several teams have voiced their unhappiness about the excessiveness of the tyre degradation.

    The Spanish grand prix saw four stop strategies implemented by the majority of the field.Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery told AUTOSPORT: “We never intended for there to be four-stop races, so we are going to make construction changes to the tyres.

    “We will be taking some of the design of the 2013 tyres, but also some of the elements of the 2011 and 2012 products that served us so well during that period. We want to go back to having two or three stop races.”

    Pirelli’s inexperience in the highly competitive world seems to have found them out. Hembery admitted that they had understimated the increase in performance the cars would make from year to year.

    “They have basically been stressing everything far too much, and probably we underestimated the performance,” he said. “We cannot test with the current cars, and all we have access to is a 2010 Renault that laps four or five seconds slower than the current F1 cars do on a Sunday.”

    Pirelli motorsport director, Paul Hembery.
    Pirelli motorsport director, Paul Hembery.

    Revisions to the structure of the tyres will be made along with possible changes to compounds. When asked about the possibility of the changes shaking up the competitive order Hembery responded with relative certainty that all should remain as is. “There have been concerns from some of the teams that the changes will favour one team or another, but we don’t think that will be the case,” he said.

     

  • Video: Spanish Grand Prix Preview from a Tyre Point of View

    Video: Spanish Grand Prix Preview from a Tyre Point of View

    Pirelli gives us a preview of the Catalunya Circuit in their Spanish Grand Prix Preview and tells us a bit about how they measure tyre performance.