New tires from Pirelli have been introduced to Formula 1 for the British Grand Prix this weekend. The Italian manufacturer had already produced and homologated the tires, but decided to approach the FIA with a plan to bring forward the introduction for safety reasons. However, Sergio Pérez is not convinced that it was done for safety.
Pirelli has seen that the premier class cars are currently generating more downforce than expected, so it wanted to avoid future problems. The more downforce a car generates, the faster it can corner and the more pressure there is on the tyres. The amount of downforce currently being generated is reportedly on par with what Pirelli had only expected at the end of this season.
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Approval FIA and teams
Pirelli therefore decided to intervene as soon as possible earlier this year to prevent future problems with the tires. This summer there will be racing in warm weather conditions on a number of circuits where a lot of corners are taken at high speed. Think of Silverstone, Spa-Francorchamps and of course Zandvoort. Pirelli approached the FIA with a proposal to introduce a new, stronger tire construction for the British Grand Prix. The FIA and the teams approved the plan. The compounds themselves have not changed; it’s all about the construction.
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Characteristic change
“I think they did this tire construction to give some teams more advantage,” Pérez told media outlets ahead of the weekend at Silverstone. “I think someone will improve from this. Whether it will be us or other teams, I don’t know, but anyway there is definitely a characteristic change in the tyre, especially at high speeds, we feel.” The new construction was put through its paces by all teams in a free practice session in Spain. “It will also be interesting to see what happens with tire wear, because we haven’t really been able to test that yet.”
