Pirelli told 2019 ‘tyres are a bit too peaky’

Shahida Jacobs
Pirelli tyres

Pirelli want another test for their 2020 tyres in October.

Pirelli’s main target for the 2021 season is to develop compounds with a “wider working range”, according to their F1 head of car racing Mario Isola.

The Italian company introduced thinner treads for the 2019 season, but it doesn’t anticipate too many changes ahead of the 2020 campaign.

However, Formula 1 will switch to 18-inch tyres the season after next and Isola says drivers want them to produce a working range that reduces overheating “even more” and allows them to push the tyres for longer.

“For 2020, the technical regulation is stable, so there are no big changes,” he told F1Technical.net. “For 2021, on our side, we are developing new constructions, we are developing new compounds, the main target is to have a wider working range, most of the comments from this year were that our tyres are a bit too peaky.

“That is why we are trying to develop tyres with a wider working range. You can do that both with a different construction and with different compounds. We are going this direction, trying to keep the number of the homologated compounds.

“If it is possible to reduce overheating even more because overheating is something which drivers don’t like. If they can push the tyres more, we have then better races.”

The introduction of the thinner rubber at the start of 2019 coincided with a dominant start to the season from Mercedes as they won the first eight races.

Merc certainly made hay while the sun was shining as several other teams struggled to come to grips with the new compound.

There were some suggestions that the new rubber was produced to favour Merc, but Isola played down those reports.

“Mainly it is because of the design of their car,” he said. “We don’t just focus on Mercedes, I can say that lots of teams work with the tyres quite well.

“Just look at McLaren, how McLaren are going compared to last year. It is not just the tyres, it is the design of the car. There are teams that are working well.

“Toro Rosso, Red Bull were complaining a few races ago, and they are now using the tyres quite well. There is a learning curve, this is true.

“Some teams are able to understand the tyres better, and for some teams it takes a bit more time. In the second half of the season, they are learning and converging, using the tyres in a better way.”

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