Brawn: Unfortunate teams said no to 2020 tyres

Michelle Foster
Pirelli-red-2019-tyres-PA

Ross Brawn says it is unfortunate the teams voted down Pirelli’s 2020 tyres as they would have allowed the drivers to race “a bit harder”.

The teams recently took part in a mass tyre test with all 10 outfits in action at the Yas Marina circuit, running the 2020 Pirelli tyres.

However, at the end of it all there were very few positive comments coming from the teams or the drivers.

That meant when it came down to a vote, the teams unanimously decided to keep the 2019 tyres for next season.

F1 sporting boss Brawn would have “preferred” they switch.

“The unfortunate thing was the objective for 2020 was [to have] more ability for drivers to lean on the tyres to help them an these racing situations,” he told RaceFans.net.

“It wasn’t to be quicker. It could have been slower: there was nothing to say they couldn’t be a bit slower than what we have now.

“But they needed to be more of what the drivers were asking for, which was a tyre they could lean on more and they drive a bit harder without losing performance. And there’s certainly signs that they achieved that.

“But what also seemed to be the case is the way they changed the construction to achieve that was having a bit of an impact on some teams’ aerodynamics. Therefore, because the sidewall and the distortion of the tyre was different then it was upsetting some of the cars.

“I don’t think a number of teams wanted to have to address that because it was a bit of an unintended consequence of the change of construction.

“I would have preferred to have persevered and stuck with the 2020 tyres and solved the issues because I think they did achieve the objectives. But it’s a team decision and that’s where it’s gone.”

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