Pirelli has announced that it’s Milan headquarters will host the Formula One Teams’ Association Fans Forum event. The forum will take place at 17:00 on Wednesday 7 September, just before the Italian Grand Prix, with some of the leading drivers and team principals in attendance. Pirelli confirms Stefano Domenicali, Nico Rosberg, Jarno Trulli and the tyre supplier’s motorsport director Paul Hembery will be present.
Varied weather and a drying Silverstone track meant a challenging race for drivers at the British Grand Prix, not least from a tyre point of view. Pirelli’s PZero Blue Intermediate compound was tested at the beginning of the race with every driver starting on the tyre, and Pirelli’s motorsport director Paul Hembery commented that the manufacturer was impressed with its competitiveness for “about 12 laps” given that areas of the track were dry and very wet while it was in use. Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso claimed his – and his team’s – first win with Pirelli tyres and of the season, overcoming mixed conditions and prolonged pressure from his Red Bull adversaries, who took the second and third steps of the podium.
A testing crisis may be looming at Pirelli. The Italian tyre maker’s motorsport director Paul Hembery shared with Autosport that he foresees future issues with the Toyota TF109 Pirelli currently uses for Formula One tyre tests. “We cannot get access to current cars, and nobody wants to seem to give us an answer or a solution,” Hembery commented. “As much as Toyota has done a good job, you can only go forward so far before we have no access to testing. We want to be a good partner for the sport and we want to try and deliver the best product, but until we can test and verify our own results it is becoming a little bit more difficult."
Pirelli has signed on Brazilian driver Lucas di Grassi as its latest test driver. The 26-year-old will perform at least five test sessions in the Italian tyre maker’s Toyota TF109 test car later this year to provide input for the development of the latest-generation Pirelli Formula One tyres. In addition to carrying out the tests, di Grassi will attend some grands prix with Pirelli this year, starting with Silverstone, in order to collect information and pass on his experience during technical debriefs.
Pirelli has confirmed that it will take its PZero Silver hard (prime) and PZero Yellow soft (option) to Silverstone for the British Grand Prix, while Formula One’s 2011 visit to the Nürburgring this year will be on the PZero White medium and PZero Yellow soft tyres and the tight and twisty Hungaroring circuit in Hungary will see the PZero Yellow soft and PZero Red supersoft tyres. Pirelli’s motorsport director Paul Hembery commented: “Our nominations are designed to maximise the opportunities for strategy and find the right compromise between performance and durability.
The Grand Prix of Europe in Valencia presented an unusually prosaic Formula One meeting, with each of the top seven drivers opting for very similar tyre strategies, saving the debuting PZero White for only their final stint. Despite a challenging track temperature of 47 degrees, both PZero tyre compounds showed strong durability, with a relatively limited degree of degradation. World Championship leader Sebastian Vettel claimed his sixth win of the year’s eight races, followed home by Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso and Red Bull teammate Mark Webber. Vettel also set the fastest lap.
Pirelli will introduce its new medium compound PZero White Formula One tyre in Valencia, Spain this weekend, following a testing period during free practice in Canada two weeks ago. The tyre is not quite as durable as the hard tyre seen during the first five Grands Prix of the season, but Pirelli believes it is quicker. Pirelli will also make the PZero Yellow soft tyre, which is the option tyre in Valencia.
Ken Block has been given the role of Pirelli Formula One test car driver, making his first appearance on 5 August, the Italian brand announced at the Canadian Grand Prix. Block’s relationship with Pirelli began during its supply contract with the World Rally Championship and its Gymkhana programme, as Pirelli Motorsport director Paul Hembery explains: “[Ken] impressed us with his dedicated approach, his technical feedback and his unique way of marketing the sport.
Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery has labelled the much-delayed and exciting closing stages of a sodden Canadian Grand Prix “one of our highlights of the year so far” as Jenson Button applied just enough pressure to draw a mistake from Sebastian Vettel on the final lap to take victory for the McLaren team. The Grand Prix provided a showcase for Pirelli’s PZero Orange full wet and its Blue intermediate tyres. Button survived a collision with teammate Lewis Hamilton – who had previously made contact with Mark Webber in his attempts to be aggressive – a drive-through penalty, and five pit stops to win, and had at one point occupied 21st place. The early strategy calls in constantly changing conditions helped Button win one of the most action-packed races of the year.
Pirelli’s new supersoft tyre made its debut in Monaco and will now return for the Canadian Grand Prix; this time however the PZero Red supersoft tyre and the harder PZero Yellow tyre will face increasing wear on a low-grip Montreal circuit that is also faster with heavier braking than at Monaco. Pirelli says that the long stints of more than 50 laps on the PZero tyres, as seen in Monaco, are unlikely and instead there will be a return to wheel-to-wheel sprint racing. For Friday practice, drivers will be given two additional sets of Pirelli’s new medium compound slicks to evaluate for the future.
It seems pit-stop confusion may have aided Sebastian Vettel in securing victory at the Monaco Grand Prix. The Red Bull Racing driver pulled into the pit on lap 16 in response to a change of rubber made by nearest rival Jenson Button. His team intended to keep the PZero Red super soft tyres on his car, however a problem with the team’s communication system led to a switch to the primary Yellow soft tyres. Thanks to this radio mix-up, Vettel was able to avoid a later pit-stop. Race commentators say the German driver’s ability to continue on the soft tyres until the red flag was hung out late in the race proved key to his Monaco victory.
Pirelli heads immediately from one of the quicker tracks seen on the calendar to the slowest: Monaco. The tight and twisty confines of the principality are ideal territory for Pirelli’s PZero Red supersoft tyre, which makes its debut in Monaco. For the first time, by extension, it is also twinned with the PZero Yellow soft tyre – which becomes the prime nomination after five Grands Prix as the option.
Sebastian Vettel held off a spirited performance from Lewis Hamilton to win the Spanish Grand Prix by 0.6 seconds, both drivers running the new harder compound PZero Silver tyre during the closing stages. The new Silver, which had its first outing in Spain, proved to be a central talking point, once again putting tyres firmly in the conscience of the sport’s followers. Though Lewis Hamilton had been vocal throughout the weekend in his reservations about the tyre, he found enough speed to challenge Vettel all the way to the line, also recording the Grand Prix’s fastest time on the Silver.
Pirelli has previewed the Spanish Grand Prix and the debut of the latest evolution of its harder compound tyre, suggesting that it should provide a longer-lasting alternative to the Yellow-coded softer compound that has been the teams’ favourite this F1 season. The company’s motorsport director Paul Hembery states: “Our new PZero Silver tyre is an evolution of the existing tyre that should provide an extra five laps or so of running compared to the previous version, widening the gap between the new hard tyre and the soft.
Pirelli is returning to the scene of some of its pre-season F1 testing this weekend, the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo on the outskirts of Barcelona. The supplier’s PZero tyres – or at least, previous iterations of the evolving rubber – have been seen there four times already: once last year in private testing, twice this year during the official test ‘season’, and once more as part of Pirelli’s on-going private test campaign last month. This means that teams and Pirelli alike have a good deal of data on Barcelona, with its challenging mixture of corners and speeds highlighting every aspect of a car’s performance. Motorsport director at the Italian brand Paul Hembery says “the new tyre – which we have tested extensively – reduces degradation and improves tyre wear.
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