Formula 1 teams unanimously voted to use the 2019 tires designed and made by the company Pirelli, rather than use the new ones, made by the same company, after testing it out in Abu Dhabi last week.
Pirelli had made the new design to be less sensitive, reducing the rate for wear and tear, and also overheating less. But after the test, the racers came with reviews that were not very optimistic. Even before now, Sebastian Vettel was one of the first to express his displeasure about the tire after testing it himself in Barcelona in October.
The company affirmed that the new design, coupled with the material, was an upgrade, but were willing to let teams use the current tires if that was what they wanted. For that, a vote had to be conducted, and if 70 percent of the vote went to keeping the current tires, then the decision would hold, according to the laws spelled out in Article 12.1.6 of the FIA’s Technical Regulations. On Tuesday, the result came out, and all ten teams were in support of sticking with the current tires.
Some issues made the teams reject the new tire, other than the tire itself. Chief amongst them is the fact that for teams to use the new tires, they would have to modify their cars since it was designed differently than the current model. This would have incurred cost, but besides that, it would have been very unwise to do, since, due to the new F1 regulations that are to take effect from 2021, teams would have to modify their cars. So it does not pay to modify your car now, only to modify it in about a year.
The new tires, according to Pirelli, is the solution to the problem drivers currently face that prevents them from pressing harder. It might indeed be the solution, but it is not very practical, as they were described by Carlos Sainz as “weird and very bad”. Pirelli has however said that they would use the same designs in the 2021 tires since the new regulation would allow for a wheel increase from 13 to 18 inches, meaning the new tires would fit just well then.
Written by: Leon Osamor
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