Jarno Trulli is saiying what many of us have been saying for some time now—what is the deal with the tires this year? It is no secret that I have never been a fan of the alternate compound scheme devised by the FIA to “create†exciting racing. Any regulation(s) that attempts to create false excitement and competitive racing is an anathema as far as I am concerned. Regulate the parity of the sport, within reason, and manage the safety aspects but leave the competition to the teams, drivers and track.
I have leveraged, many times, that the alternate tire compound makes little sense as the teams are left with only one functional compound and one that is a complete compromise in performance and possible safety. If the FIA cannot see the wisdom in providing safe, performance-enhancing compounds to see the cars at their prime then I am bereft of the logic that would cloud their view as to what F1 really is about.
The German Grand Prix, as well as the British Grand Prix, showed us that heat is the biggest factor for the tires compounds to work effectively. Brawn GP, as well as many other teams now, are struggling with the compounds in cooler temperatures. The graining and decomposition is there but not the performance so often attributed to a softer compound.
To these ends, the sole tire supplier Bridgestone, amended their alternate compound rule over the next few Grands Prix. We at F1B would humbly ask them to consider eliminating the rule for ever and one day.
Trulli said:
“For me at Silverstone I had an incredible qualifying and the race was terrible. Even though I scored points it was such a difficult race, really, really bad, far off from where I should have been, and this is driving us mad a little bit. We don’t understand, we can see the area but we cannot understand why we have troubles.
“This is what is happening this year, and honestly not only to us. It is difficult to explain and difficult to talk about, we are investigating but it is not an easy issue to solve.”
He further commented:
“We have all been complaining about this, and the rest of the season will probably be much better because of the decision by Bridgestone but I believe this cannot be the explanation, because if you have a problem you usually have a problem through the weekend, you don’t have it only on one session, or any more in another or the race.
“I cannot blame [Bridgestone] for the problems we suffer. [But] for sure we can say that the tyre choice made up until now was not necessarily right, in terms of positioning the tyres.”
Comments via Autosport ( those MB’s)
