Pirelli hungry for 2014 F1 test schedule confirmation

Pirelli travels to the Hungaroring with the new mash-up tyre selection sampled by 2013 drivers at Silverstone’s Young Driver Test last week this weekend. Consisting of the 2013 compounds in the tread and the 2012 Kevlar-belted construction, Pirelli channelled its inner Thom Yorke, pronouncing there were no alarms and no surprises following the “reliable” testing of the ‘new’ tyres’ performance. Pirelli’s Motorsport director Paul Hembery was diplomatic following the Young Driver Test, opining that “everybody achieved their objectives” at Silverstone. Thanking the teams for their cooperation in running tyre tests as required by Pirelli, he said the tyres had run “reliably throughout the three days”, and maintained the hope that they would allow teams to use “an interesting mix of strategies for the races ahead”. Yet with teams already possessing “a lot of information about the shape and deformation of this tyre from the previous season,” according to Hembery, it seems likely that these new compromise tyres could reduce tactical malleability. That said, the Hungarian grand prix will allow some focus on tyre strategy, with limited overtaking opportunities and low average speeds, so perhaps there could be more to talk about from a tyre point of view than Tyrepress.com anticipates.

Though Lotus and Kimi Raikkonen used innovative tyre strategy to inject some late interest, the last grand prix at Germany’s Nürburgring was a much more sedate affair than the previous action at Silverstone (give or take a runaway flaming Marussia and Webber’s unfixed wheel), and some teams will hope the new-ish tyres give them a bit more edge as they head to a completely contrasting venue for the Hungarian grand prix. Pirelli brings the P Zero White medium and P Zero Yellow soft compounds to the Hungaroring, near Budapest. Conditions at the circuit are normally hot and sunny, which increases the work for the tyres, but average speeds are low, affecting the usual pattern of wear and degradation. Rain is not unknown however, so as usual Pirelli will bring the Cinturato Green intermediates and Cinturato Blue full wets as well.

Hembery said: “Overtaking at this circuit is never an easy task, so the teams will be looking to use strategy to maximise their opportunities to gain track position. The selection of medium and soft tyres should provide plenty of chances to help them do that, based on the data that all the teams gain with different fuel loads in free practice. Temperatures in Hungary can be very high, and this is the other factor on which the levels of wear and degradation experienced will depend. 

“Traction and braking are two critical aspects of tyre performance in Hungary, with the teams running a set-up designed to emphasise these key areas. With levels of lateral energy relatively low, tyre performance rather than durability will be the limiting factor and this will form the basis of the strategy selected – with the teams aiming to keep the tyres within the peak window of operating performance for as long as possible. The design of our latest tyres should help them to do this.”

Pirelli ambassador Jean Alesi concurred that it would be “really difficult to overtake, although they did make the straight a bit longer a few years ago to provide more passing opportunities, which helped a bit.” He stressed the importance of qualifying well, on a circuit that will provide only “some tyre degradation”. This “comes from traction and braking rather than high-energy corners: you have to make sure that your tyres do not go off at the end of a stint in particular,” Alesi said. 

“Although I’ve been on the podium it’s never been a track that is especially exciting to drive. But it’s a very important race for Formula One history and culture: when I first raced there, Hungary was still behind the Iron Curtain, and the grand prix was just one of those things that brought change to so many countries in that area, which were still Communist at the time. It was an incredibly exciting period of history and the race was a symbol of the liberation that was to come. Those days are gone now, but the fans are still as passionate as always and this is why it is always a pleasure to come here.”

Pirelli discusses the Hungaroring from a tyre point of view

Pirelli explains further that while the 1986-built Hungaroring is a permanent circuit, its characteristics are similar to those of a street circuit. The tight and twisty track with 14 corners and an average speed in the region of 180kmh make it the second-slowest circuit of the year after Monaco, though the cars actually spend a lower proportion of the lap on full throttle than they do there. Ten of the 14 corners are taken at 155kmh or lower.

The circuit is not extensively used for many other races during the year, which means that the surface is often “green” at the start of the weekend. As more cars run through the track a clean line emerges, but because there is only one clear line around the narrow circuit, a lot of dirt, dust and marbles accumulate off the racing line, making the problem of overtaking even harder.

The large number of narrow corners and big steering inputs mean that the edges of the tyres are subjected to peaks of temperature and wear. The tyres can sometimes overheat more on a slow and twisty track than on a fast and flowing track, Pirelli concludes.

The Hungaroring requires a high downforce set-up, as the cars are on full throttle for only around 10 seconds over the course of the 4.381 kilometre lap. The top three all selected two-stop strategies last year, although they used their tyre allocation in different ways. The top 10 on the grid all started on the soft tyre; the highest-placed starter on the medium tyre was Mark Webber in 11th. who finished the race eighth. Pirelli predicts a performance gap between the medium and soft tyre at around a second per lap.

Hembery seeks winter testing decision

While it seems virtually certain that Pirelli will return in 2014 as F1’s tyre supplier, Swiss F1 commentator Marc Surer suggested that the rather extreme criticisms of Pirelli could have made the series unattractive to serious alternative tyre suppliers such as Michelin and Bridgestone in any case, especially considering the short notice now available to develop a working tyre before the end of the 2013 season. 

Surer suggested that teams’ criticism of Pirelli was “not very clever” to Germany’s Sport1, since the investment required of Pirelli to present them with tyres would require the benefits of good publicity in order to justify the outlay to its board. Surer also failed to mention teams’ not very clever tactic of fitting severely under-pressured tyres in the wrong positions at Silverstone. 

Pirelli’s graciousness in copping some of the blame for this by admitting it had not explicitly required teams to use tyres in the proper fashion speaks volumes for how much it wants to stay in F1 next year, though Hembery has been demonstrative in his insistence of the need for a proper winter testing programme, including – preferably – access to at least one 2013 car.

Hembery updated Pirelli’s progress in finalising a winter testing programme this week, explaining to Autosport that the tyre manufacturer is pushing for access to the most recently competing car in order to test in the week following the 2013 season-closing Brazilian grand prix, and again in the Middle East in December. While Hembery said that “a couple of teams” have mooted the possible of testing on a 2011 car, he stressed the quicker, more aggressive performance of the 2013 car as being a better option for 2014 tyre testing.

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