The team bosses sat down to discuss the tyres this morning. Only five of the ten racing teams were in favour of returning to the 2018 tyres – so everything stays the same keeping Mercedes advantaged.
F1 will continue to run on 2019 tyres with treads that are 0.4 mm thinner – even though Mercedes is the only team in the field that can cope well with this specification. In a corresponding meeting with the FIA and Formula 1 managers, in which tyre supplier Pirelli was also represented, the ten teams voted on the question of whether to return to the 2018 specification.
However, only five teams were in favour of returning to last year’s tyre specifications, with the other half voting against changing mid-season. And because it would have taken at least seven votes for a change, everything remains the same for the time being. Mercedes Motorsport Director Toto Wolff isn’t the only one happy about this either.
World Championship leader Lewis Hamilton spoke out against a return to the old tyres in interviews yesterday. The five-time World Champion, who attended the meeting alongside Sebastian Vettel, Romain Grosjean and Charles Leclerc, had already declared before the meeting: “The 2018 tyres were worse than this year’s rubber”.
“Last year you had to keep the tyres in a certain temperature window, so you had to slow down a lot more often and spare the tyres,” said Lewis
“The tyres also bubbled and grained, so the blistering was worse than it is this year. I couldn’t have pushed like in Montreal.”
For the Briton one thing is certain: “This discussion about the tyres shows once again that the different teams have different goals. It’s all about their own interests, not about what’s good for the sport.”
“We have to find solutions that work for everyone. It’s about improving sport and racing.”
the following idea below, is to make formula1 tires relevant to the road cars.
how about having two types of tires, lets say: soft and hard (apart from wet tires, obviously), and per single season one is allowed to use only 3 sets of each type (similar to the engines now).
it speaks for itself, that the lifespan of the harder type would be several times longer than that of the softer one.
The pitstops wouldn’t be mandatory, but given the fact that lifespan of the softer tire wouldn’t last entire seven (21races divide by 3sets) races the teams would need to change tires (applies at least to those starting from positions P1 to P10) .
It is possible, that the lesser teams would use soft tires for qualifying only, and drive entire race on a hard tires.
So what should happen if those 6 sets (3soft+3hard) weren’t enough to last 7 races? The grid penalties!
I can imagine that it would create an element of competitiveness, and most likely, would reintroduce more tire manufacturers into formula1.
Manufacturers could introduce ever improving, better performing softer, qualifying-tires, and extremely durable hard tires. Moreover, the tire temperatures, their pressures would not need to be included in the regulations. It will police itself.
And think about that the extra 1 point for the fastest lap! If you are fighting for the championship, would you sacrifice the mileage of your precious soft tires just to get that extra point?
I would love to hear your opinions!
cheers.