With the Formula One season about to kick off from March in Australia, each team is trying to work on things to better their performance and open the season on a high. Now Formula One fans can expect to see fewer pit stops this year and faster, more aggressive looking cars, according to tyre supplier Pirelli’s motorsport head Paul Hembery.
Hembery told Reuters at the Autosport International show on Thursday, that “The (tyre) degradation (wear) levels will be reduced substantially compared to the past,” “And the gap between the (tyre) compound levels will be much reduced…so I think the strategy elements that we’ve seen in the last seasons will be greatly reduced — fewer pit stops, following a trend that we’ve seen actually over the last two years. “I’m quite sure we’ll see a lot more one-stop races.”
With this new changes coming into existence of this wider specification tyres are expected to have around 25 percent more grip, more thermal stability and last longer than their quick wearing predecessors that forced drivers to pit as the performance tailed off. As per the records, the 22 drivers averaged two pit stops a race last year with the number rising to three in China.
Hembery talked about the performance of these tyres and said that the prototype 2017 tyres used early on in testing last year were so conservative that they could have lasted three grand prix, unlike the softer 2016 compounds that often barely made it into double figures on the lap count. With poor durability a step too far he also recognised that there was still a risk that the new tyres would be criticised as much as the old.
Hembery further added with a smile “It’ll probably go the other way and we’ll be sat here and you’ll be saying ‘How does Pirelli feel now that the racing is boring, there’s no overtaking and no pit stops’,” “We’ve already written that script I think and we’ll see that coming…but we did for six years what we were asked to do. We’ve been given a different challenge and we’re trying to meet that.
“I’m absolutely sure we will see things we want to change during the year.”
The 2017 tyres which are yet to be run on the latest cars will be unveiled next month and could be five seconds a lap quicker than the ones Pirelli gathered data with last year and the first pre-season test in Barcelona is eagerly awaited.
