There is a part of me that was asking, “why the new hyper-soft pink tire for 2018 and the harder tire”? Many fans were asking, are we going too far with all the tire compounds?
That is a legitimate question but I sense that Pirelli are actually trying to make F1 better through some more aggressive compounds given their charter of providing high degradation tires.
The important point will be not to get too cheeky with the tires like their second season in the sport. That year didn’t turn out well with blown tires at Sliverstone etc. Pirelli tried to out-think the engineers and got too cute with their compounds.
I think they have learned their lesson and since then, they’ve been accused of being too conservative. Now, the 2018 season could find them dipping their toe back into the higher impact zone on F1. They may play a bigger role in the result with their tires.
To those ends, if it helps F1, then I am all for one compound or 12…doesn’t matter to me. As for the new hypersoft? Lewis Hamilton says it is their best tire yet:
“We’ve got a good early understanding of these 2018 Pirelli tyres,” said Hamilton.
“On early impression, the new hyper-soft is the best tyre that Pirelli have produced since returning to F1.
“I found that the other compounds are still a bit too hard for my liking but we’re moving in the right direction.”
That’s encouraging and Lewis would know. He’s gotten very good at managing tires over the last few seasons and knows a good one when he feels it.
Let’s hope Pirelli are moving in the right direction here for 2018 because we need something to take out minds off the horrible HALO device.
Hat Tip: Autosport
How does Hamilton knows what tire he was testing? Vettel stated consistently that all tires on his car were unmarked to keep the information hidden from the team.
The tyres Pirelli is using for this test are marked, except for those used by one of the two McLaren cars which is doing a “blind tyre test”.
Oh OK, I wasn’t aware of it.
Thanks
that was as a result of McLaren not doing the tyre test in Brazil which was going to be a Pirelli tyre “blind/unmarked tyre test” a test of which Pirelli lost. so it was agreed that McLaren will be allowed to test with two cars with one car doing the lost “blind/unmarked tyre testing.
This year’s Hard compound was dropped after a couple of races.
Is a change in the the tire allotment coming? What good would adding one more softer and one harder tire gain for the drivers if you’re still restricted to 3 compounds per weekend?
The Pirelli second year tyre problems were more to do with the teams abusing the tyre design specification then with the tyre itself. (wheel camber and tyre
pressure) design specifications and Recommendations were totally abused by most of the teams. Also back then Pirelli were not “too cheeky” with their tyres, nor have they tried to ” out think the engineers”, and neither were they “too cute” with their compounds. Pirelli were back then loyally fulfilling their contractual specification obligations.