Mario Isola says the new Pirelli construction has worked as expected and desired after it made its debut in F1 British GP.
The more robust construction was brought about in last weekend’s F1 British GP by Pirelli where they wanted to update the compounds owing to the new generation of cars getting faster as the season progressed from last year to the current season.
With the load increasing, it could have become a problem as the season progressed and so Pirelli brought the new construction earlier than planned. They were working on the compounds for 2024 but since everyone was fine in testing, they approved early change.
And it worked as expected as per Isola as Pirelli didn’t have to increase pressure to match the increasing loads. There were grip issues during the weekend but it wasn’t clear if it was all down to the new construction and the pressure difference due to it.
“The new construction was working as expected,” said Isola. “It was supposed to be transparent and I believe it was transparent. Obviously, we don’t have a direct comparison with here because we didn’t have the old one. But, in Barcelona, it was clear and they had a proper comparison. It was clear that the new construction was transparent.
“It was also transparent during our tyre development tests. It’s an improvement because, despite the increase in loads, which we measured around 15%. 15% more load on the tyres compared to last year – but we used the same pressures. Thanks to the new construction, we didn’t have to increase the pressures.
“All these elements are the reason why I’m saying that from our side, the Silverstone race was ok. I prefer races on two stop, but what’s important is that all three compounds have been used. And also, if you look at how they have been used, it is exactly what we want. That is to give three compounds where each car, each team, each driver can choose one or another depending on how severe a car is on tyres or the one that the driver prefers.
“Because we had, for example, McLaren on medium-hard, when a lot of other drivers switched from medium-hard to medium-soft after checking with Russell, who did a fantastic first stint on the soft, that the soft was better than expected. The soft was better than expected probably because of two elements.
“One was the cooler track temperatures – we had 15-degrees less than Friday. And clearly with the race pace you reduce the degradation on the soft. And the track evolution, for sure was the other factor. So, these two elements made the soft more usable, better, with manageable degradation. And most of them decided to switch onto a medium-soft strategy.
“Some others decided to stay on the medium-hard – I mentioned McLaren but also Ferrari. And the decision was probably supported by some other elements that the teams have in terms of how they use the tyres. Lando was second, so, he was right! When you are at the top, you are right. We relax a bit because we know that the new construction is better in terms of resistance,” summed up Pirelli chief.
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