Pirelli F1 chief Mario Isola says everyone will have to accept the tyre difference without the blankets that will be tested at Silverstone.
There has been multiple tests already without the tyre blankets this year and there will be one more at Silverstone post the British GP after which Pirelli will submit a small report for the F1 Commission to take a call for the 2024 season.
The F1 Commission will study the data from Pirelli and eventually take a call in the coming weeks. But Silverstone won’t be the final test as the Italian manufacturer will continue testing tyres without blankets to continue their development process.
“We have Tuesday/Wednesday,” said Mario Isola. “It’s not the final test because we have other tests planned for the rest of the season – but after this test the F1 Commission is going to decide if, for 2024, we ban the blankets or not.
“What we are doing is that, after the test, we are doing a report: an executive summary for team principals so they don’t have to read 40 or 50 pages – I hope you are happy, just three pages with a summary, you’re welcome! – with a summary of the test.
“Obviously we will also supply all the data to the tyre expert of the team. So it’s not just the summary for them. And then I hope they are going to decide based on the data. If we want to continue for another year with blankets, we will do that,” summed up Isola
The tests so far has drivers with mixed response. The key problem that remains unsolved is the tyre behaviour at cooler temperatures and circuits which provide less grip in general. But Isola reckons that everyone will have to accept that the tyres will behave differently.
They will not get the same feeling as they get with the tyre blankets. “It depends on what you mean with ‘ready’,” said the Pirelli F1 chief. “The new tyres, or the tyres that work without blankets are different than current tyres.
“So you cannot expect that you have a warm-up phase that is exactly the same as the warm-up phase of the current tyres that are heated at 70°C. We didn’t have the possibility to test the tyres in all of the conditions – because we don’t have cold conditions at the moment, and when we tested in cold conditions – I remember at one test with Mercedes, for example, in Paul Ricard – it was at the beginning of the season with the compounds that are not the final version of the compounds.
“So we were in the early stages of the development. So, the point is that we have to accept that, when tyres are running without blankets, they are different. We need to understand which is the impact on race strategies – because obviously we don’t want the show to be damaged by the new situation – but the direction that we agreed with all the F1 stakeholders is to reduce the impact on the environment and make the sport more sustainable, and this is what we are doing,” summed up Isola.
From F1 teams’ side, Ferrari’s Frederic Vasseur voiced a similar opinion as noted above about the tyres in conditions providing low grip and low chance of quicker warm-up. Mercedes’ Toto Wolff concurred with the Frenchman’s views.
“As Mario said, it’s a bit too early because we didn’t receive the report – but pretty in-line with Mario, I think that in the normal circumstances that we did the test – I think it was Bahrain – and it went pretty well,” said Vasseur. “But the concern is not this one: the concern is that when we go on the low track in energy, and you will have cold conditions, in the extreme conditions.
“For example, Las Vegas, if you go there, you race at night and it’s 4°C, what could be the outcome of this? I think on 95 per cent of the conditions, it will be OK and they are doing a good job and honestly I think a couple of teams did the test and it went pretty well – but we are not able to anticipate what could be the situation in the extreme conditions – and this we have to wait for the report from Mr Pirelli.”
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