We mentioned in our podcast yesterday that Pirelli will be looking at the Mugello test this week with a keen eye on just how the teams get on with the 2012 compounds the Italian tire maker has delivered for the season. Pirelli’s motor sport boss Paul Hembery has always maintained that the compounds are the same for everyone and it will just take time for the teams to dial in the right performance characteristics with their chassis and find the right race strategy. Hembery told AUTOSPORT:
“It’s more about the teams getting used to their new chassis, as well as the tyres, which have changed slightly. They have very little and have one eye on the race and one on qualifying in changeable conditions during race weekends, so it’s hard to get ideas on setups.
“The medium this year is a very close relation to the soft of 2011 and that tyre was the pre dominant one in 18 races. People have forgotten that the cars have changed a lot this year. There are other factors at play.”
It’s a fair statement in that the teams are looking to understand the tire compounds better in the first in-season test in four years. Hembery suggests that the cars are much different than in 2011 and perhaps the case could most likely be made that if you put this years tire compounds on last years cars, the result would be equally challenging and reveal that the tire impact on Formula One in 2012 is really a combination of a softer tire and drastically different car.
It’s a measured and level response from Pirelli and I commend them for attempting to help F1 fans understand the elements at play here. Perhaps the teams will come to grips, no pun intended, with the tire compounds and gain more insight as to how best to use the tires for the balance of the season and if that reduces the impact the tires, or teams lack of understanding so far, has on Formula 1 then I think that’s a good thing.
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