Motorsport director unhappy with firm's 2015 tyres
Thursday 16 July 2015 09:53, UK
Paul Hembery explains to Sky Sports why he is unhappy with Pirelli's 2015 and reveals the firm's plans for next year.
After the Strategy Group meeting have you a clearer idea about what changes you'd make in 2017?
“I guess the most obvious one is the change to the tyre width, particularly the rear tyre width going 10cm wider. Not only will that change dramatically the look of the car, but it will give a lot more performance if it is combined with the increased aero package they are talking about, so that will cause lap times to be reduced.
“We are still being told that they want races to be two or three stops so there is work still to do to ensure that happens, but apart from that that is it – although that is a pretty dramatic change.”
So you are staying with 13-inch wheels then? No one pushing for 18?
“Nothing really away from 13. I don’t know why everyone talks about 18 when if they wanted a change you’d probably want to go 20 to make it really dramatic. Going to wider tyres is the main topic at the moment.”
Are the tyres too conservative at the minute with too many one-stop races rather than two or three? When Pirelli came into the sport they originally promised to keep a step between the compounds.
“Yeah, we are not where we need to be this year and it is true that the requirement is for two or three. So we are not quite hitting the mark, but then we have no testing ability. We have zero testing ability so it is okay to sometimes ask us to do things, but we also need the ability to do our job. We are looking to make changes next year to get back to two or three stops, but we also need to have an agreement in place to allow us to do the testing to give us better information so we can ensure that happens.”
Romain Grosjean said he wants to go back to the days of 2012 when you could be second on the last lap, but hit the cliff after pushing the tyres too hard and finish 10th. Is that something we could see again next year?
“Probably not to that extreme, but he is quite right. Different people have different views and there are some that say they want tyres that don’t degrade and they can push on which is probably close to what we’ve got now. Others want drivers to have a big influence, like Romain suggested there, where the driving style and ability can make the difference. So I think somewhere in the middle is probably where we are going to be.”
