If you’ve heard of the criticism leveled against Formula 1’s control tyre supplier Pirelli in the wake of the British Grand Prix this year, you would wonder why the Italian company wants to continue in its role.
Pirelli’s motorsport head Paul Hembrey reasoning is that his company did what was asked of it in supplying tyres tailored to ‘spicing up’ the racing as opposed to stressing on flat out performance.
“We were asked to do a specific job at a phase when the sport had become very boring and no one was watching it,” Hembrey told autoX. “The teams are still asking us for two to three stops so expect an element of strategy to remain despite the focus going on the new powertrains.”
The mid-season summer break became a point from which Red Bull usually start pulling away, which Hembrey pointed out occurred in previous seasons too.
“We can see from our data that they (Red Bull) made a design change that gave them a very noticeable edge over Ferrari, Lotus and Mercedes.”
Data is something that Pirelli claims to have no shortage of and will get more with eight in-season tests (as opposed to none prior to Silverstone this year) in 2014.
The tests, however, will not allow Pirelli to try out new products as of now. “We don’t need an excessive amount of testing,” said Hembrey. “Just a certain amount to maintain a knowledge bank and try out new concepts.”
But with the lion’s share of scrutiny shifting to radical new engines…sorry, the term is ‘powertrain’…Hembrey expects and hopes for Pirelli to be a little more low key.
“It’s now up to other aspects of technology to take the ball forward,” said Hembrey. “We’ll do whatever is asked of us.”
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