The debate regarding the thinner tread of Pirelli tyres used in three rounds of the 2018 Formula 1 season continues on as some section still believes it was done to help Mercedes which Lewis Hamilton, of course, doesn’t.
Pirelli decided to bring the thinner tread tyres for three races in Barcelona, Paul Ricard and Silverstone on safety ground. Since then, it is being said and debated that it was done on the request of Mercedes.
The German manufacturer has had a slightly difficult time to adjust with the new tyres as compared to its rivals. The team won both the races in Barcelona and Paul Ricard where the other tyres were used.
Post the race in Austria when Hamilton suffered blisters, the British driver called upon to bring the thinner tread tyres to all the races. When asked Hamilton again, if it does indeed suit the Mercedes car more, he shunned it down as an ‘engineer’s excuse’.
“I honestly don’t,” he started. “I don’t really notice the difference, they feel pretty much the exactly same except they are not as easily prone to blistering but we don’t suffer from blistering. I think the last race we had that.
“If you look at last year, other teams had a failures on tyres blistering. We don’t have tyre problems in general. The last race, obviously, I was pushing the tyre way over the limit, trying to recover position and that was just down to me, not down to our car being worse on that tyre or anything like that.
“Ultimately that’s an excuse that an engineer would look to if you’re not doing well enough, they’ve got to find something to point at and so in my mind they’re just using that as an excuse,” he added.
The calls for Pirelli helping Mercedes has been rubbished time and again. It is being said that if the Italian manufacturer were to help the manufacturer, they would have brought the thinner tread tyres to all the races and not just the three.
Even Sauber’s Charles Leclerc admitted that his team also has problems with the normal tyres used this season. “I think in Barcelona when we first had them then for the test after the race we tried them and for us it was definitely a good move because we had some problems with the other ones, the normal ones.
“I believe Pirelli knows what they are doing and if they put these tyres for here, it’s because they believe that it might bring issues with the normal ones. For me, it’s fine for me with these ones,” he said.