Tyre talk!

Five rounds completed and still 14 more to go. The beginning of this season has been extremely intense: Ferrari, Lotus and Red Bull are the top teams at the moment and only 4 points are separating Vettel and Räikkönen in the championship standings. Still the number one topic this far has been the current tyre compounds provided by Pirelli. There have been endless talks about the tyres... Some teams are satisfied with this year´s compounds, others are dissatisfied indeed.

Red Bull have given the most clamorous opposition in terms of this year´s tyres. Red Bull have had difficulties to make the tyres last as long as they would have wanted to. The tyres have been a clear weakness for the team whilst Lotus and Ferrari haven´t suffered from the tyre degradation as much as the reigning world champions. In Spain for example Alonso won the race with a 4-stop strategy and many people said 4 pit stops are too much. Vettel said after the race that he wasn´t going the pace of the car but the pace of the tyres. We also saw another problem considering the tyres: delamination. That was a clear safety issue.

After all this criticism Pirelli´s motorsport director Paul Hembery has stated that there´ll be tweaks in terms of the current tyres. Immediately after this statement started the talks about going back to last year´s tyres. Lotus´s team principal Eric Boullier was quite upset about the thought of that possibility. Now the FIA have intervened in the situation and ruled that changes are allowed to be made only on safety grounds. This means only alterations necessary to prevent a repeat of the rear tyre delaminations that have struck at the last few events. The FIA have made it very clear, however, that it will not tolerate any changes aimed at reducing the number of pit stops or decreasing the tyre degradation.

So I guess the changes made will be quite minimal and I´m confident that the Canadian GP (when the new tyres will be introduced) won´t turn the battle for the championship upside down. The changes on safety grounds are very justified. The delamination of the tyre could cause a serious accident and I´m sure all teams are willing to accept changes that are made on this ground. Safety comes always first! But tyre degradation is a whole new issue. It is contradictory though, that cannot be denied. In my opinion teams like Lotus, Ferrari and Force India should be given all the credit they deserve for developping a car that is very gentle for the tyres. Lotus for example have designed their E21 completely around the new tyres. Their success mustn´t be taken away from them! It would be totally wrong to bring back the last year´s tyres only because some teams haven´t managed to do their work as perfectly as some other teams have. F1 is about designing a car as close to perfection as possible regarding tyres and other important aspects. Tyre degradation is a problem that must be solved by the teams that suffer from it -it´s not Pirelli´s problem as long as it isn´t a clear safety issue!

I understand Red Bull´s concern about the racing aspect. It doesn´t feel like racing if the only thing you can think about during a race is the tyres and how you can save them. It doesn´t feel like racing if you can´t drive as fast as you could because it´s all about nursing your tyres. And Formula 1 is all about racing! You should go flat out and challenge your rivals to wheel-to-wheel battles and not letting someone pass you because otherwise you would destroy your tyres. But the point is that the tyres are the same for everybody. If your car doesn´t match with the tyres then the team should improve and develop the car. Easily said than done. Easy for me to say as I don´t have a clue about any technical details! I know that´s anything but a peace of cake!

No matter how minimal the changes will be, if Red Bull wins the constructors´ championship at the end of this season, there´ll be endless talks about these tyre changes. How Red Bull pressed Pirelli in the issue and so on... Though I guess all these talks have mainly been created by the media. Pirelli´s motorsport director Hembery has said that he hasn´t got any phone calls from Red Bull´s team principal Horner but all the fuss about Red Bull pressing Pirelli has been created by the media.

And then there´s this question: how many pit stops are too many? I don´t think 4 pit stops at Barcelona were too much. The race was extremely entertaining and the battle for the podium places was thrilling. And the conditions vary depending on the circuit. Teams also learn about the tyres all the time when the season proceeds so "too many pit stops" doesn´t sound a ground good enough for the changes anyway.

When the tweaks have been set by the Canadian GP I hope there will be less talks about the tyres and more talks about racing. Despite the fact that I´m a passionate Sebastian Vettel fan I strongly think that Lotus and Ferrari deserve their advantage over their rivals and the other teams have to deal with it. I believe in Red Bull and I know they´re capable of improving their RB9 in terms of the tyre degradation. For a hugely successful team like Red Bull such a problem doesn´t exist which couldn´t be solved! So far Lotus especially have done a better job than the others, it is as simple as that! The pecking order mustn´t be changed by Pirelli or any other quarter but the team themselves!