'We don't make concessions to 1 or 2 teams' – Paul Hembery interviewed
Before the Spanish Grand Prix, Paul Hembery spoke with Detlef Vogt, an editor with Tyres & Accessories’ sister magazine Neue Reifenzeitung. In this interview, the Motorsport director spoke in more detail about Pirelli’s Formula One tyre philosophy, the controversy that is quickly becoming a yearly tradition of the company’s supply tenure, and why the company is “not in the sport to be thanked or loved”.
Tyres & Accessories: Why this year’s dry tyres the way they are? Who dictated the performance they should have?
Paul Hembery: “When we came into the sport in 2011 it was with a clear brief from the championship promoter and the teams to build tyres that degrade faster and thus make sure that there is an average of two to three pit stops per race and car. This request was actually based on the Canadian Grand Prix 2010 where the tyres provided for more pit stops than usual. The fans and the teams liked it and thus the request was born. Also in our third year this brief has not changed. However, as Formula One cars develop at an incredible pace, our tyres need to evolve too. This means that for the start of each season we had to develop our tyres a little more so that there would still be two to three pit stops. So this year’s tyres are a logical evolution from last year’s and the year before.”
T&A: Usually at the start of any season – not just 2013 – there are critical voices. Why is this?
Paul Hembery: “Each team develops a new car for the start of the season. Sometimes these changes are very noticeable due to a new set of technical regulations like in 2012, sometimes they are less. But in each case the tyres have to develop as well in order to continue to give a challenge to the teams and to have two to three pit stops. Then, as the season goes on the drivers and engineers understand our tyres better and how they need to set up the car to get the best results. This point is usually reached by about half-season and this year won’t be any different. So, if we had continued to use the same tyres of 2012, many of the races this year would be one-stop races!”
T&A: As the season goes on tyre talk calms down. Is this because Pirelli makes concessions towards its criticisers and changes the way the tyres are or is it rather because the F1 teams learn how best to use the tyres?
Paul Hembery: “These are the world’s best drivers and engineers, so as the season goes on, the teams learn more and more how to use the tyres in the best possible way for their car. It is also important to know that we provide the same tyres and service to all 11 teams, no exception. Consequently, we don’t make concessions to one or two teams, just because they shout the loudest. We only make changes to our tyres when we feel that these changes would improve the way the tyres work for all, not just for one or two, and we have done so this year with the hard compound which, starting from the Spanish Grand Prix, has a wider temperature operating window.”
T&A: Is there a point when the criticism becomes personal or unfair? A well-known German former racing driver recently mentioned the safety aspect in his reasoning and said he feared that F1 tyres at high speed might literally explode.
Paul Hembery: “Well, we already had vocal criticism from German drivers in the past, but both are Formula One world champions and know what they are talking about. In particular, when Schumacher voiced his criticism about our tyres last year we sat down with him and looked at all sides of the issue. And we came to the conclusion that, even though we respected his opinion, it was a philosophical difference of opinion on the approach. So we could do nothing to help him in particular as the majority of teams and drivers wanted no change. Regarding the safety aspect that this former racing driver brought up I can assure you that our tyres present no safety issue and since our return to Formula One in 2011 we have not had one single structural tyre failure. Zero! Event Hamilton’s tyre failure in Bahrain which looked quite spectacular was not due to a structural tyre issue but to an external factor, in this case debris on the track.”
T&A: Sometimes you hear that the necessity of managing the tyres is in conflict with the common sense racing view that the fastest driver should win. Would this consequently mean that the role of the tyres in F1 has become too important?
Paul Hembery: “Historically, drivers managed the tyres and the brakes and had to use a gearstick. If drivers can influence the performance, then it is a skill. Great champions like Prost, the ‘professor’, were known for these skills. So are current drivers less able? In the past we very often had races that resembled more a procession than a race. You could watch the start, then literally have your Sunday afternoon nap, wake up and there would be no change in the race order. If this is what people want, no problem. We can produce tyres that last a race or more. And as soon as all teams come to us to say unanimously that they would like tyres that don’t degrade, we’ll do that. However, for now the feedback we get from individual teams is rather not to change anything!”
T&A: When a race goes badly, drivers, teams and also commentators put the blame on the tyres. But winning a place on the podium is down to the driver or his car. Do you as a tyre manufacturer feel unfairly treated?
Paul Hembery: “We are not in Formula One to be thanked or loved. Formula One is a sport but in the end it is also a business. Pirelli is in Formula One because it suits our business model. Like everywhere else in life, it is impossible to make everybody happy but quite frankly that is not our purpose either. We just concentrate on providing tyres that fulfill the brief and are safe to drive at all times. Also remember that the winning car had exactly the same tyres as the others.”
T&A: There are people who say that negative criticism is still better than not being talked about at all. Is this also true for F1 tyres? One might start to think that Pirelli produces tyres that degrade on purpose, in order to be talked about.
Paul Hembery: “As I said before, Formula One for us is a business and must therefore make sense from a business point of view. What has usually happened in the past is that people only talked about tyres when there was a serious problem, look at Indianapolis 2005 for example. If you provide tyres that ‘just do their job’ nobody will know you are there. This is not what we wanted. So the brief from the teams to create degrading tyres for us also made sense from a business point of view as it keeps us as a talking point. And as long as there is no safety issue which there isn’t, I’ll repeat that once more, we are happy to provide discussion points for those who say our tyres have spiced up the racing and those who say that drivers can’t race anymore.”
T&A: People always say that the development of racing tyres also goes into the development of road car tyres. When looking at the careers of some F1 engineers in recent years you might get the impression that a highly qualified F1 tyre engineer only has little to contribute into the development of road car tyres.
Paul Hembery: “I don’t know which engineers you are referring to but I can assure you that the data we get from Formula One benefit our road tyre production. Today, many industry standards that are common, such as low-profile tyres for example, are the result of innovations that we introduced into motorsport in the past. The low profile tyre is something that we came up with for asphalt rallying in the 1970s. And we look on Formula One as being our very biggest research and development laboratory, with all the grand prix circuits that we race on forming the ultimate test track. So it’s clear to see how the sheer extremes that our tyres go through can help us gather information to produce the best road car tyres. We recently launched the P Zero Silver road tyre as well as the Cinturato Blue, which is based on Formula One know-how, and this technology transfer will only increase in the future.”
T&A: Obviously the environmental aspect plays a more and more important role in tyres. How does motorsport contribute to this characteristic and what role does the environment play with regards to F1 tyres specifically?
Paul Hembery: “We bring about 1,800 tyres to each F1 race weekend and all of these get collected again from the teams at the end of the weekend and get recycled at a special recycling facility in the UK. Also, for example in our motorsport factory in Izmit, Turkey, we use advance production processes based on energy and water efficiency and the reduction of dangerous emissions like carbon dioxide. Pirelli has always been a pioneer in new technology, for example we eliminated aromatic oils from all elements of our tyre production processes long before legislation demanded it. There are many more examples how we respect and protect the environment as a company and Pirelli has been the leading company in the ‘Autoparts and Tyre’ sector of the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index for six consecutive years now.”
T&A: Pirelli is clearly positioned as a premium brand. Does the F1 commitment support your colleagues who position Pirelli on cars as standard equipment or for aftermarket sales?
Paul Hembery: “Absolutely, Formula One is a perfect match for us and is a motor in all areas of our activities. We’re the acknowledged world leader in Ultra High Performance tyres, so Formula One fits in perfectly with our sporting philosophy and emphasis on the very highest levels of tyre technology. For all those reasons, we wanted to be involved and we believe that so far we’ve seen a good return on our investment with an increased level of brand recognition.”
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