Pirelli 2013

[fiohaa]

tyres. tyres tyres tyres tyres tyres.

TYRES - will they last? won't they last? how many laps can the tyres do? tyres. did the tyres win? i think the Lotus Tyres won. tyres tyres tyres tyres.

effin Sick of it. sorry at what point could you have called this racing. Looks like its going to be even worse than last year.
At one point, Brundle said in commentary 'pirelli could have brought a hard and medium compound and we could have had a 1 pitstop race, but that would have been boring'

So thats what motor racing is now, even to Brundle - its based on how many pitstops there are, and how tyres cope on different cars.
That's what makes it exciting does it?

You know one of the best races last year was the US GP, where Hamilton lap after lap was catching, catching, catching Vettel. Yes it was ruined by a pathetic DRS pass, but it resembled the F1 I used to know, that anticipation, that build up, one driver chasing another, not constrained by tyre wear, just being able to drive flat out to eventually take the position.

That side of F1 is all but forgotten now, its a real shame. I've got right back into WRC this year, which itself is a shadow of its former self, but at least tyres are barely mentioned, and its all about watching drivers on the limit, using every ounce of their driving skills, driving these cars on spectacular roads.
F1 used to resemble the pinnacle of circuit racing, it definitely isn't anymore.

what a yawn fest - glad i didn't wake up for the race.

[strad]

I'm sure half the bunch complaining would be eulogizing over Senna holding off Mansell back in Monaco in '92.

Not sure what your point is...Mansell pitted because of either a puncture or a bad wheelnut,,,How it has anything to do with tires that are completely shot after only a few laps escapes me.
The tires and this contrived BS is just that BS

[muhammadtalha-13]

I want BRIDGESTONE back FLAT OUT Racing. PUSH PUSH PUSH

[Just_a_fan]

It's the FIA that require the tyres as they are - it's not the fault of Pirelli. Today, Bridgestone would be in the same position.

[muhammadtalha-13]

Who wants bridgestone back? Some more racing and pushing and less pitstops?

EDIT: I think bridgestone tires with DRS will be a perfect combination where driver being overtaken can overtake back.

[muhammadtalha-13]

Either way it's not good for racing. Any driver with a car which is gentle on it's tyres can win. No test of TRUE driver's abilities.
Like last year Maldonado won in Barca but what happened after that? Nothing...

[prince]

Who wants bridgestone back? Some more racing and pushing and less pitstops?

EDIT: I think bridgestone tires with DRS will be a perfect combination where driver being overtaken can overtake back.

The biggest reason Bridgestone tyres were disliked was because they had great endurance, a driver could do a WHOLE RACE on one set and it started looking processional. But we are forgetting the re-fuel ban, which actually caused the racing to be so boring. Bring back Bridgestone (little more degradable) along with re-fuelling, which would give the men with brain a lot of work to prepare strategies and then drivers can ACTUALLY RACE without bothering about cheese (tyre) grain. Then the races would be exciting.

[Neno]

Either way it's not good for racing. Any driver with a car which is gentle on it's tyres can win. No test of TRUE driver's abilities.
Like last year Maldonado won in Barca but what happened after that? Nothing...

NO! True driver in this F1 era needs to know how to save his tires, how to overtake in close fight and drive immediatly fast to no one to catch him. Alonso did that in some way, Red Bull did, but Kimi did better job then them

If you reffer that Kimi win is something like Maldonado, please go whine somewhere else, Kimi last year was 3rd in championship, win race had podiums and E20 was fast car during whole season, it was not Bingo, Lotto or something else.

[beelsebob]

Who wants bridgestone back? Some more racing and pushing and less pitstops?

EDIT: I think bridgestone tires with DRS will be a perfect combination where driver being overtaken can overtake back.

I certainly don't – the current tyres are great.

[Richard]

It's all Fangio's fault http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Manue ... until_last

The advantage of the Bridgestone tyres was that I could turn the TV off after the second pitstop knowing that nothing would change. That also saved time because I tended to miss the post race stuff too. Nowadays it gets more interesting as the race progresses, and then you get sucked into the post race stuff. That means I have to be exposed to more advertising which I completely ignore anyway.

All this drama takes so much time that my life is disappearing. It's enough to drive anyone to drink - for some reason I'm partial to Johnnie Walker and Red Bull.

The real culprit is the abolition of refuelling. Removing that variable puts too much emphasis on the tyres which is why the two compound rule was introduced, and when that wasn't enough tyres had to have a shorter durability. I do have to agree that the idea of the qualification tyres only lasting single digit laps in the race seems barking mad.

However, the overall principle is that F1 is a strategic sport and the optimal race should have 2 or 3 stops to allow strategy to have its part. We must never lose sight of that. As ever in life, its all about balance and proportion which is why I now alternate between Red Bull and Burn.


ps - For all those wanting cars to GO ALL OUT 1000% ALL THE TIME IN REAL RACING - not sure why it always seems to be in capitals, I missed that grammar lesson at school, and I missed the maths lesson about 1000% too. Anyway, the fastest way to finish a race will never be running at full pace all the time because a car with less fuel will be lighter and overtake you at the start. Also the lighter car will be less punishing on its tyres so it will have more grip as the tyres age.

[Nando]

Maldonado earned that win, it had nothing to do with tire management.

[kilcoo316]

Not sure what your point is...Mansell pitted because of either a puncture or a bad wheelnut,,,How it has anything to do with tires that are completely shot after only a few laps escapes me.
The tires and this contrived BS is just that BS

Senna on knackered tyres defended against Mansell on new ones.

Not exactly a hard connection to make.



If you want to go down the line of arguing contrived... why are the engines a set capacity? Why can there only be two driven wheels? Why are the wings a set size? Why run around in circles for an hour and a half instead of going from A to B?

The whole thing is contrived!

[kilcoo316]

Either way it's not good for racing. Any driver with a car which is gentle on it's tyres can win. No test of TRUE driver's abilities.
Like last year Maldonado won in Barca but what happened after that? Nothing...

F88k me.

So why did Alonso not win in a Minardi then? Surely if the car wasn't a factor before the Pirelli tyres came along it stands to reason he should have had a good shot at the WDC in 2001...

[bhall]

[...]

The whole thing is contrived!

The engine specifications are ostensibly contrived for safety and cost considerations; wings are ostensibly contrived for cornering speeds; circuits are contrived for safety and because they're, well, circuits. Either way, those arguments can be made.

Tires, on the other hand, are contrived expressly to spice things up, to make F1 something it's never been. There's no other reason for their silly putty existence.

[kilcoo316]

All this drama takes so much time that my life is disappearing. It's enough to drive anyone to drink - for some reason I'm partial to Johnnie Walker and Red Bull.

Hmm... I find myself drinking Total and Shell. Does leave a bit of a taste in the mouth I must admit.

The real culprit is the abolition of refuelling. Removing that variable puts too much emphasis on the tyres which is why the two compound rule was introduced, and when that wasn't enough tyres had to have a shorter durability. I do have to agree that the idea of the qualification tyres only lasting single digit laps in the race seems barking mad.

Options that I would consider (which probably means they are daft ):
- Bring the tyres closer together and go back to the old ruling of "you pick your tyre on Sat and you run with that tyre only for the rest of the weekend". So you get people on softer tyres at the head of the grid and those with harder tyres toward the back - a natural change in pace from Sat to Sun, promoting a close race, overtaking and strategic calls across qualifying to race.
- Now, with refuelling gone, bring back the Sunday warmup and allow set up changes from Sat to Sunday. Because the setups are different, the fundamental pace of the car can change from the Sat to Sun - again, promoting a closer race and overtaking.
- Increase the size of the rear tyres - significantly - but impose that they be the same compound as the fronts. This will allow the driver a bit more freedom to be aggressive on the throttle (we all like to see powerslides don't we?).
- Significantly increase the power output of the KERS units (for a similar time duration). It would hopefully then be a big enough speed differentiator that a marginally quicker car could use it tactically to overtake a slower car - without resorting to the DRS approach (which I don't like).

-Also-
I would not bring back refuelling. A few reasons for it - I like the variation in car weight - it imposes more compromises on setup, its safer for all concerned not to be refuelling mid-race and with the 2014 rules reducing fuel consumption significantly, its effect will be reduced anyway.