As the tire saga ramps up over who tested with what and when and was it legal, it now seems that Pirelli will not be bringing a host of newly constructed tires for the Canadian Grand Prix. According to the enterprising folks at AUTOSPORT, the Italian tire maker will only be bringing enough new Kevlar belted tires for Friday’s practice session in which to test the new construction. According to Pirelli, they did not get a unanimous agreement to use new tires in Canada.
“We’ll be bringing two sets per team for Friday practice with a view to implementing the new rear tyres in Silverstone,” Pirelli told AUTOSPORT.
“As the regulations allow for this and for reasons of sporting equity, we think that this is the best way forward.”
If using Friday’s practice sessions are the equitable way forward, one wonders why the cloak and dagger testing was done in Spain with Mercedes only? Testing for 1,000km is quite different than Friday practice but with a Friday practice test, all teams can participate and provide feedback and gaining consensus would be much easier among the teams.
While Pirelli suggested there was no safety issue behind the rash of delaminations that have been experienced this year, they do believe the Kevlar belt will fix that issue although they still suggest it is debris induced… except they do mention that it is heat related issues as well:
“We want to get rid of the delamination that we found is debris-induced and creates a weak spot and overheating,” said Hembery of the changes.
“We believe the solution we have will completely resolve that.”
That’s the first I’ve read from Pirelli where they state that there is a weak spot and overheating. An interesting turn of events for Formula One. Here is Pirelli’s official statement:
The Formula One teams will have an opportunity to test the new range of Pirelli P Zero tyres during free practice at the Canadian Grand Prix, while the tyres used for the actual race will remain in their original 2013 specification.
In order to provide some testing time before any new range of tyres is introduced, the P Zero White medium and P Zero Red supersoft for Canada will be in exactly the same specification as that which the teams started the season, with no adjustments.
This new tyre will be brought to Canada as an experimental tyre for free practice, as allowed by the current regulations. Each driver will receive two sets of this new medium compound for use during Friday’s two sessions only.
Following feedback from the teams and drivers, the new specification of tyre is then set to be introduced from the British Grand Prix at the end of June, and will remain in place until the end of the year.
The aim of introducing the new tyre is to prevent any instances of the tread detaching itself from the structure. However, the performance and wear characteristics of the new tyre will not be significantly different, with the aim of keeping up the spectacle and retaining a strategic element to all the races.
