Pirelli is tired of it and threatens to quit F1
As teams continue to argue about whether or not Pirelli should change its current series of F1 slick tyres, Pirelli itself is getting tired of the lack of contract for next year, claiming it is running out of time.
Soon after the Spanish GP where most required 4 pitstops to get to the end of the race, Pirelli announced it would revise its tyres to make sure that the amount of pitstops is kept under control. The company targets 2 pitstops on average and was surprised itself to see how its tyres were suffering at Bahrain and Spain especially.
That announcement however included a change of tyre construction, something that influences its aerodynamic properties. Soon after, the FIA stepped in, saying the company is only allowed to change the tyres for safety reasons, and that the changes should not have a considerable impact on performance.
The discussion went on, with Force India reportedly confirming they would appeal any changes while Toro Rosso team principal Franz Tost said at Monaco that any changes would first have to be tested in Friday practice sessions before being forced to use them on race day.
On went the rumblings when Fernando Alonso was lured into commenting that Red Bull Racing were bad losers by whining about the tyres not playing into their hands: "When you win dominantly for so many years, you can forget about losing". Red Bull's team principal Christian Horner somewhat irritated replied to a Spanish radio station that Ferrari should work harder and not complain about yellow flags, referring to Ferrari's suspicion that Vettel had overtaken someone under yellow flags at the Brazilian GP 2013.
As teams are clearly not happy with the situation, an agreement on the tyres for next year is also not done yet. Pirelli's motorsport director Paul Hembery said at Monaco: "Apparently on September 1, we are meant to tell them everything that they need to know about the tyres for next season, but now we are in mid-May."
He continued to note that the regulation changes for 2014 will require a thorough re-engineering of the tyres, especially because the 2014 turbo engines will have more torque.
