Tyres - Is it really more exciting?

[nipo]

Applauding who? FIA? You must be really joking...

Thank you for the very constructive response...

It seems as if these tyres will behave differently at every venue and that will provide a nice variety of strategic complexities to the races, rather than the staid and predictable strategies of previous years.

Well said. I think the situation is that there is more unknown towards the end of a race, and that attracts people to try to stay in the race and hope for the best... Same way DRS is attracting people who would try to come up closer to the car in front. For me, so far the degradation and DRS are working quite well.

[mx_tifoso]

I think given the situations so far it's too early to judge. We've only had to GP's and they were really different in many ways. After a few events at race circuits in similar weather there will be a better picture.

But "for sure" the advantage over someone with worn out tyres is kind of frustrating, since they just run around them with ease (majority of times) and there is no fighting back. I picture a big child pushing a smaller one out of the way with no chance of getting back at him.

[SiLo]

I think given the situations so far it's too early to judge. We've only had to GP's and they were really different in many ways. After a few events at race circuits in similar weather there will be a better picture.

But "for sure" the advantage over someone with worn out tyres is kind of frustrating, since they just run around them with ease (majority of times) and there is no fighting back. I picture a big child pushing a smaller one out of the way with no chance of getting back at him.

This is exactly my point, I like to see proper battles, not just, waiting a little bit, then just driving round the outside because you have so much more grip. We would still see challenges and battles if the tyres were more durable, but when a car is 2 seconds a lap faster, it's simply no contest. It's like an LMP1 car overtaking a GT2 car at Le Mans.

[marcush.]

My impression is :
We see cool battles from people on different strategies and thats really spicing things up.To me we have not yet seen any weird cool lateral thinking yet ..maybe apart from Perez wild one stopper.
I´m pretty sure Schumacher will show some gold in one of the next races as obviously the car is not up to it we will see him start using his brain aqnd experience more.
We have just witnessed a race with lots of wild wheel to wheel cornering as we have seen in the 80s...just without the wheel banging wich was ok in the good old days...Today we just have girls blouses ...well be it..I´m looking forward to more of it.

[horse]

Paul Di Resta was complaining about the marbles apparently.

Pirelli in the firing line over 'rubber bullets'

Looking at the back straight was just incredible, it was a sea of marbles with a long island of racing line. I think it's the only real draw back to the high degradation tyres is that it must be so diffucult to drive off the racing line as the race progresses.

Maybe they could put ploughs on the front wings? Come to think of it, doesn't the Red Bull already have this function?

[Steven]

The overtakes are too easy as well, as what we get now is a much much slower car defending and inevitable overtake.

I think somebody forgot to tell Hamilton and Alonso about this feature because that was a rip snorter of a battle and far from easy.

It seems as if these tyres will behave differently at every venue and that will provide a nice variety of strategic complexities to the races, rather than the staid and predictable strategies of previous years.

Alonso's DRS was not functional as of lap 5 or something, so he went into that battle old school on same terms. The problem is here that one needs to realise such a battle would not have taken place with an active DRS. A pass would have been so simple that even I could do it.

I have said it before the season and I'm still convinced that KERS should not be a driver controlled system to make it simpler for drivers and fans. DRS should be limited to only a part of these huge straights and I believe the tyres alone would be enough to increase overtaking this year.

[andrew]

I think Monaco will be a real headache in terms of tyres. Not through high speeds like most tracks but there are a lot of corners with heavy acceleration. That'll be fun on tyres that drop off like the Pirellis.

Monza and Spa will be a bit concerning too. Curva Parabolica at Monza and Eau Rouge and Blanchimont will be real tyre killers. Maybe not too bad on the hards but the softs will be a total nightmare!

So far I am not for KERS or DRS as they make overtaking too easy. Overtaking is meant to be hard, not a mere formality. I can maybe get on-board with the tyres as they are but I'll reserve final judgement until the end of the year.

[volarchico]

Based on last year, wouldn't Canada be the worst on the tires?

[ESPImperium]

Im giving it about 10 races, lets get the first 150,000km on the board in race weekends, so far we have about 30,000km on the board.

As for a pre judgement now, the Pirelli tyres are causing some nice battles and some really intresting strategy calls. DRS is introducing enough spice, and KERS should be dropped, or all teams made to carry a spec system, excluding MGU, to make fair. If all teams had the quality MBHPE system thats on the Mercedes powered cars, there wouldnt be any failures.

I can see some tweaks coming to the DRS rules, the 1 second thing might not be working, giving drivers either 25 DRS activations a race or 20 seconds of DRS evey lap will eventually be brought in, to make it clearer as the DRS thing is making drivers play games, allow it to be used for the defending driver as well.

The Pirellis will make some intresting racing, but the marbles need to be addressed, theres just too many of them for my liking. But id like to see what the effect of what the Bridgestones Super Softs would have caused arround this track. I can see 4/5 stoppers in Canada, and any where between 3 and 5 for the majority of the rest of the races.

Its a new formula, im gonna give it 150,000km before passing full judgement.

[ringo]

Funny enough, i think last years bridge stones would be more fitting for 2011 regs.
The one stopper wouldn't be bad at all with some good all out racing.
The reservation we are seeing with the drivers is unprecedented.

A million and 1 pitstops isn't really strategy either. It just looks that way. In reality it's just changing tyres right before they fall off. More like a reaction than strategy.
I'm afraid only refueling can make a pit stop call have a strategic element.
It's also the only way we can have balls to the wall sprinting with no care for destroying tyres or care for running out of fuel.
It's only then will we see drivers give 100% for the whole race.

As it is, a redbull will win every race. And the others can only sit back and watch, as they cannot push hard to go 110% to even challenge the redbull.
Hamilton and Alonso look like the only 2 that can even try to do this, but they are being hampered by the stupid tyre degradation.

This is off topic, but another change that need to be made is the points. I think the winner gets too much points now and is over rewarded.
25 points works with almost equal cars, but when a car is totally dominant, the season will be over by halfway with the points hall it's bringing in.

[marekk]

Funny enough, i think last years bridge stones would be more fitting for 2011 regs.
The one stopper wouldn't be bad at all with some good all out racing.
The reservation we are seeing with the drivers is unprecedented.

+1.

It's simply to much of ingredients: less durable tyre by design/request, and much higher degradation due to KERS, DRS and increased car's weight combined.

At one point they will hesitate to use KERS and DRS, because they have to nurse the tyres. Hardly racing.

[nipo]

Funny enough, i think last years bridge stones would be more fitting for 2011 regs.
The one stopper wouldn't be bad at all with some good all out racing.
The reservation we are seeing with the drivers is unprecedented.

A million and 1 pitstops isn't really strategy either. It just looks that way. In reality it's just changing tyres right before they fall off. More like a reaction than strategy.
I'm afraid only refueling can make a pit stop call have a strategic element.
It's also the only way we can have balls to the wall sprinting with no care for destroying tyres or care for running out of fuel.
It's only then will we see drivers give 100% for the whole race.

I can only agree that maybe just adding DRS to last year's formula would have been good enough. However I cannot agree with your "ideal". We had the same situations several years ago - refuelling, optimal strategy of around 2 stops with 1- and 3-stoppers being gambles. Did people not complain about the lack of proper on-track racing then?

As it is, a redbull will win every race. And the others can only sit back and watch, as they cannot push hard to go 110% to even challenge the redbull.
Hamilton and Alonso look like the only 2 that can even try to do this, but they are being hampered by the stupid tyre degradation.

Wrong, RedBull were not 1-2 in both races, and Seb had to really put in a good lap at Sepang to come out on pole. If Hamilton could have started in front and controlled the first few laps, who knows how it would've turned out? Then again, the team that builds the car that can extract the most tyre performance almost always came out on top, what's the matter with that?

This is off topic, but another change that need to be made is the points. I think the winner gets too much points now and is over rewarded.
25 points works with almost equal cars, but when a car is totally dominant, the season will be over by halfway with the points hall it's bringing in.

This is getting ridiculous. When we had 10-6-5-4-3-2-1 the ratio between 1st and 2nd was even greater. The recent change to 25 was an incentive for the 2nd/3rd guy to push that little bit more towards the end, which seems to be something you'd appreciate from what you are saying.

I think you've pointed out some problems here with the tyres behaving too radically compared to previous seasons. I suppose that is a valid point and I'm sure the teams and drivers will reflect that and things will get adjusted and optimized. However it is entirely another thing to jump to our feet 2 races into the season and scream for everything to go backwards.

[andrew]

Based on last year, wouldn't Canada be the worst on the tires?

Yep, forgot about Canada.

Add that to my list of the real tests for the Pirellis.

[hollus]

A million and 1 pitstops isn't really strategy either. It just looks that way. In reality it's just changing tyres right before they fall off. More like a reaction than strategy.

I know if it doesn't happen to Hamilton it is invisible, but you tell me how Button got past Alonso yesterday.

[WhiteBlue]

For me the tyres are a gimmick that is being taken too far. The tyres are much too brittle and produce too much debris off the racing line. On the racing line they do not rubber in as much as they should. I think they should be more durable and less brittle by the use of more plasticisers.