Pirelli fast tracks changes for Canadian GP

Pirelli has now formally confirmed that it will change the construction of its tyres in time for the Canadian GP.

Motor sport boss Paul Hembery had said after Spain that changes could come for the British GP, but the schedule has been moved forward by one race.

“Our aim is to provide the teams with a new range which mixes the stability of the 2012 tyres and the performance of the current ones,” said Hembery. “As a company, we have always moved quickly to make improvements where we see them to be necessary.

“After evaluating data from the first few races this year, we’ve decided to introduce a further evolution as it became clear at the Spanish Grand Prix that the number of pit stops was too high. The Spanish Grand Prix was won with four pit stops, which has only happened once before in our history. These changes will also mean that the tyres are not worked quite as hard, reducing the number of pit stops.”

Intriguingly in mentioning the one previous Pirelli win on four stops Hembery was referring to Turkey 2011 – forgetting that Spain that year was also won on four, with a near identical schedule to this year’s.

“With limited testing time, it’s clear now that our original 2013 tyre range was probably too performance-orientated for the current regulations. However, having identified this issue, we’re determined to rapidly resolve it. It’s worth underlining that the current regulations for winter tests limit the opportunity to test the tyres under the same conditions as the race season because of the lower temperature and restricted time.

“The Teams are of the same opinion as we are in wanting longer testing times and different locations for the next tests. We developed the 2013 tyres on the basis of careful simulations that were, however, not sufficient, taking into account the improved speed of cars (up to 3 seconds per lap).”

Hembery confirmed that Pirelli had also stepped in to reduce the instances of delaminations caused by track debris. He’s repeated the assertion that he made last weekend that Pirelli would rather see a tyre come apart than have it delaminate – even though the latter case could allow a driver to get safely back to the pits.

“It’s important to point out that these delaminations, which occur when the tread comes off, do not compromise the safety of the tyres as the core structure of the tyre is not affected in any way, helping drivers to complete the lap and to change the damaged tyres safely. These delaminations were due to damage from debris that overheated the tread.”

He added: “We’d like to thank all the teams for their continued and extremely valued support as we worked with them to identify the correct compromise between the pure speed that makes us the world leader in the Ultra High Performance sector and a global spectacle that is easy for Formula One fans to follow.”