The season enters an important moment for Pirelli, the tyre supplier for this new era of F1. Two days of testing on the 2024 tyres took place in Barcelona on Tuesday and Wednesday, with Mercedes and Ferrari running on the track.
George Russell and Mick Schumacher completed plenty of laps for the Brackles squad over these two days. During the Spanish Grand Prix weekend, we met Mario Isola, Motorsport Director of Pirelli.
Speaking with him, we took stock of the situation of the Italian manufacturer on the 2023 tyres and on the changes already scheduled for this season.
This is an especially important moment for the future, as Isola himself explained, given that Pirelli’s commitment will expire in 2024, with the new tender for subsequent years already active and in which Pirelli itself will participate.
“Yes, the tender is underway. There was a deadline on May 15 when we sent the documentation. By June 15, the FIA will have to tell us if we are suitable, a part of the process that is the same for everyone, but as we are already suppliers, I imagine we will be suitable.
“We did ours. When F1 answers us that we are suitable, we will start the commercial discussions ”.
2023 tire development target and new Qualifying format.
Pirelli had set various objectives for the development of the 2023 tyres. The tires must obviously follow the growth of the single-seaters, as well as eliminate any problems that have not been considered.
For example, after the debut of the new ground effect machines, there was an exaggerated understeer which conditioned the performance of all the cars. Pirelli has worked on this in an important way by designing new front tyres.
“The 2023 targets were: to reduce understeer, which everyone had complained about and which we, during the development with the mule cars, hadn’t had the opportunity to see. In addition to this, improving the wear profile of the front was another goal, on which there has been a step.”
This year the new C1 compound made its debut in Bahrain and Spain, decided after some complaints last season about the ‘old’ C1, far removed in performance from the softer C2.
“The new C1 worked well in Bahrain, and we brought it back to Spain. Last year the teams had gone to C2-C3 in the race because the old C1 had much less grip and was too far away from the other compounds. The teams preferred to make an extra stop rather than use it in the race.”
Indeed, Mario Isola confirms that, between 2022 and 2023, there was not much difference in terms of pure tire performance.
“The rubber is practically the same, with the exception of the new C1. The improvement is given by the less understeer and by the new construction which has allowed a better balance of the cars. Then there was the actual development of the cars, which showed us how the regulatory change, which was supposed to slow down the cars, failed in its intent”.
Another novelty, also wanted by Pirelli in this 2023, is the new qualifying format, which should have made its debut at Imola – the Grand Prix, unfortunately, was cancelled due to what happened in the lands of Emilia Romagna.
“I believe in the new qualifying format not only because it should help bring fewer tyres, about 160 less, but also to broaden the options ahead of the race.
“The teams would certainly have 2 Soft, 2 Medium and 2 Hard, so it means having many more strategic possibilities. Now, to keep some Softs for Qualifying, the teams return Mediums and Hards during the FP and in the race, they find themselves with 1 Set of Mediums, 1 set of Hards and 4-5 sets of Softs, which they will never use.
“If this new format is adopted, it will also give us the possibility to go softer in the tire choices, having the certainty that the teams will still have 2 sets of Medium and 2 of Hard for the race and that, therefore, somehow, the race will you do”.
2023 cars faster and with more load than expected, Pirelli at Silverstone will introduce new material in the construction.
One of the ‘problems’ that is manifesting itself this season is that the cars are going much faster than anyone imagined. We had already anticipated, after the Australian GP, how some simulations were underestimated by the teams with load values much higher than expected.
In this interview, Mario Isola revealed how much the 2023 cars are ‘ahead’ compared to the simulations on which Pirelli has based its work.
“Every year, in June and late November, early December, we get simulation teams telling us where they expect to be at the end of next year. This is because our product has to last a whole year.
“We use these simulations to think about the increases in load, but in our normal post-race data analysis, after Melbourne, we realized that the teams had reached a level of performance that they expected to reach at the end of 2023.”
This ‘anomaly’ prompted Pirelli to intervene by making an early debut of the work it was carrying out with a view to 2024, especially on the use of a new material which “was initially designed for tires that should work without tyre warmers, and therefore start from lower pressures, to then reach the optimal level once warmed up”.
One of the goals for 2023 was to race with lower pressures, but these load values made it impossible to pursue this path because “to combat the increase in load, you can only raise the pressures.”
Therefore, to avoid always revising these values upwards, Pirelli asked to be able to anticipate the introduction of this new material because “after all the tests are done, it turned out that the riders didn’t feel any differences in behaviour, balance and there were no differences in weight.
“Not even on the tire profile, which has an impact on aerodynamics and which is of great interest to the teams. There are no differences between the two specifications, but from the data, we see that the new material, under stress, performs much better.”
In Spain, the teams had the opportunity to test the new tires – in FP1 and FP2 – and, after the usual analyzes and discussions that will take place these days, barring second thoughts, the new specification will make its debut at Silverstone.
The Barcelona tests – carried out by Ferrari and Mercedes in this case – were largely in preparation for the 2024 specification on tyres that “will work without tyre warmers, of which the construction development phase is now quite advanced.”
One last question we asked him about the new specification is whether this change could invalidate one of the most delicate issues of today’s F1, i.e. tire degradation. “Actually, the compounds are the same. The thermal degradation of the compound will not change,” replied Isola.
Future without tyre warmers: The FIA has not changed its mind, Pirelli continues to develop despite external scepticism
A key point for the future of Formula 1 is the elimination of electric blankets. We know Formula 1 is moving towards sustainability, with increasingly eco-sustainable fuels featuring an increasingly important electric motor within the Power Units.
In line with this, the new Qualifying format saves the number of tyres to be built, but also the elimination of electric blankets. “All together, we decided to give it a try. After the Silverstone tests, we will analyse the data and discuss it and then make a decision based on the data and not on sentiment.”
Mario Isola outlined this approach, answering our question about the problems and criticisms there have been on this decision after seeing what happened at Le Mans in the WEC, with Hypercar and beyond.
“The goal remains to remove the electric blankets for sustainability. We cannot say that a tire without a tyre warmer can be driven immediately as if it had been artificially heated.
“We would not say it is true. A cold tire still needs a few corners to warm up and find grip, but the feeling doesn’t have to be that of being on the ice. We are therefore trying to design compounds with a wider working range.
“The point is that the blanket is short: if we go in the direction of a better warm-up, we will more easily overheat. We are therefore trying to find an ideal window of use for these new compounds.”
As such, there are no doubts or second thoughts, just a lot of work ahead and the desire to do it together, on time and in the right way, with the intention of proceeding as early as 2024 or, if the data is not convincing, delaying it by a year.
“The tyre warmers are not already used in F2 and F3, but they are sampled with very different loads. From hot to cold, the pressures in F2 have a delta of 5 psi. In F1, we are talking about 10 psi.
“The tests carried out so far tell us that, after 2-3 corners, you can find grip, but we have to do tests on different tracks and at different temperatures since each one has a different degree of severity, which implies energy on the different tyres.”
Meanwhile, in Monaco, the wet tire (Full Wet) made its debut without the use of a tyre warmer. However, an important event that brought the first feedback from a real race weekend.
“Positive feedback, considering that Montecarlo is a very particular track. A low-energy, high-risk circuit, even if when we test at Paul Richard or Fiorano, we’re still on asphalt that doesn’t give much energy.
“In Montecarlo, there was a phase in which Verstappen, with an intermediate lap, was shooting at the same times as Hulkenberg on Full Wet. We asked those who used these tyres, and no problems were reported. This is why we are very satisfied with that tyre.”
Author: Giuliano Duchess
Co-Author: Paolo D’Alessandro
Translation: Jaden Diaz-Ndisang
