Pirelli Strategy 2011

[ringo]

I remember before the pirellis came.
Everyone wanted tyres that degrade so badly. " Candad 2010 every race!!"
"it will improve racing", " the best drivers will nurse the tyres and use their brains" yadda yadda. All clap trap.

They have what they asked for and now everyone wants the ifinite life tyres again.

The racing will be crap. Nothing but playing musical chairs with the tyres and pitlane.

Qualifying will be most interesting and unfair to the fast teams. Too fast to waste a soft tyre in Q1, but yet not fast enough not to take the risk of using hard tyres that will set you back 3 seconds and in the HRT range.
Notice no team is talking about quali strategy.

[WhiteBlue]

If the tyres degrade as fast as some people fear and the impact on qualifying is as bad as we hear I expect a big demand for additional sets of tyres by the teams. As that would be a cost factor nobody has planned for we shall probably see a compound modification program soon. Atm this scenario is speculative but possible.

[volarchico]

I remember before the pirellis came.
Everyone wanted tyres that degrade so badly. " Canada 2010 every race!!"
"it will improve racing", " the best drivers will nurse the tyres and use their brains" yadda yadda. All clap trap.

I'm not sure what all the complaining is about. Maybe people just like complaining for the sake of complaining? I felt Canada was an exciting race, that required strategy. Why are there rules about using multiple compounds? The only reason you'd need that rule is if the tires didn't wear, like last year. If you can do the entire race on one set, then no one would ever need to pit. Having tires that wear enough that 2-3 pit stops are needed adds to the strategy and sport of racing. Could we have F1 with no pit stops at all? Easily with last year's tires and the ban on refueling. But part of F1 is the pit strategy. Just an opinion...everyone's got their own take.

[raymondu999]

I personally think Canada was a great compromise. But the problem is, we went from one extreme with the Bridgestones having race-lasting supersofts, to Pirelli lasts lasting barely 20 laps. We should have the same(ish) levels of deg that we had in Canada at most races. THEN I'll be happy

[WilliamsF1]

MotoGP used to allow for different compounds for front and rear and riders used to choose the compounds based on their driving style and bike characteristics.

Pirelli should allow for this for more flexibility within their 3 compounds as the option set.

[myurr]

If the tyres degrade as fast as some people fear and the impact on qualifying is as bad as we hear I expect a big demand for additional sets of tyres by the teams. As that would be a cost factor nobody has planned for we shall probably see a compound modification program soon. Atm this scenario is speculative but possible.

Actually Pirelli have already said that they're open to supplying more sets of tyres at each GP. Surely even with the cost of shipping them around the place that would be a much lower cost than compound development and additional testing.

[WhiteBlue]

If the tyres degrade as fast as some people fear and the impact on qualifying is as bad as we hear I expect a big demand for additional sets of tyres by the teams. As that would be a cost factor nobody has planned for we shall probably see a compound modification program soon. Atm this scenario is speculative but possible.

Actually Pirelli have already said that they're open to supplying more sets of tyres at each GP. Surely even with the cost of shipping them around the place that would be a much lower cost than compound development and additional testing.

Can you give a source for that? I have read that there will be additional sets for development purposes during Friday running at least at the Malaysian event. But a commitment to a general increase of supply for Q1-Q3 and the race must have escaped my attention.

[myurr]

Actually Pirelli have already said that they're open to supplying more sets of tyres at each GP. Surely even with the cost of shipping them around the place that would be a much lower cost than compound development and additional testing.

Can you give a source for that? I have read that there will be additional sets for development purposes during Friday running at least at the Malaysian event. But a commitment to a general increase of supply for Q1-Q3 and the race must have escaped my attention.

Not off hand unfortunately. It was in an autosport interview at some point in the last few weeks, but beyond that I've got nothing and haven't the time today to go look it up

[ringo]

i think the extra is for practice alone.
Qualifying will be very on edge.

The pirellis are too extreme. I'd rather tyres as 1/2 as durable as the bridgestone at least. a good 17 laps on the softs and maybe 20+ on the hards.
It needs to be in a way that a 1 pit strategy is feasible, but 2 or 3 is the norm.
We would get full bore racing without the focus on saving.

The only thing i like about the pirellis is that they will force mistakes.
A driver that is hard on the tyre, but skill full with car control should be able to wrangle an uncontrollable car, in the case they tyres go before time, until he is scheduled to pit.

Rain is another worry. I hear these rain tyres are crappy.

[Paul]

I wonder if it will make 107% at least marginally easier to achieve, with faster teams less likely to use softer compound in Q3...

[raymondu999]

If Pirelli are carrying on with their idea of colored branding, would it be differentiable when the car is moving along at 330km/h? I mean, the color will be a lot less sharp travelling at those high speeds, and it would be further subdued as the color of the black tyre around it would blur further with the colored branding. Anyone?

[WilliamsF1]

Will not know the reception to that one till the first televised event. Bridgestone tried a dot before they moved to a white groove.

[G-Rock]

I wonder if teams could design wheel bearings to wear out as well. A "thinking" driver would have to manage brake heat and cornering speeds to make the bearings last till the end.
If the wheel is in danger of falling off, a tether could keep the wheel assembly from buggering off.
They could used colour coded diagrams on the television feed so the viewer could watch bearing degration so the viewer doesn't fall asleep due to a lack of passing/crashes....

[volarchico]

I wonder if teams could design wheel bearings to wear out as well. A "thinking" driver would have to manage brake heat and cornering speeds to make the bearings last till the end.
If the wheel is in danger of falling off, a tether could keep the wheel assembly from buggering off.
They could used colour coded diagrams on the television feed so the viewer could watch bearing degration so the viewer doesn't fall asleep due to a lack of passing/crashes....

So if I'm reading the sarcasm correctly, you would be a fan of tires that last the entire race (currently available technology) and thusly no pit stops?

[Just_a_fan]

So if I'm reading the sarcasm correctly, you would be a fan of tires that last the entire race (currently available technology) and thusly no pit stops?

There is an argument for that to happen although I'd say the tyre should be made marginal if that were the case.