Sep.17 (GMM) Pirelli has scrapped its plans to introduce a new construction for its 2016 tyres.
F1’s official supplier had hoped to take an apparently safer construction to Malaysia in a fortnight, but it would have required the unanimous consent of the teams or the intervention of the FIA on safety grounds.
“Unfortunately, there was some variation in the data provided by various teams,” said Pirelli’s Mario Isola, referring to recent tests conducted in practice.
“Their experiences were quite different, so we decided to leave the current specification of tyres until the end of the year. Some teams complained of poor grip, or at least a lower level than with the usual soft compound,” he said.
“I also want to emphasise that there is nothing wrong with the current specification,” Isola added.
Pirelli will instead get on with its preparations for 2017, with tests of the bigger, wider and more aggressive slicks for next year now well under way.
Red Bull tester Sebastien Buemi has warned that next year’s cars could even scare the drivers, but Kimi Raikkonen is the latest to test the 2017 tyres.
The Finn commented: “The (test) tyres are only the path for development and they will certainly be better when we get them on the new cars next year.
“I am sure we will really notice the difference then,” the Ferrari driver is quoted by Turun Sanomat newspaper.
Pirelli’s Isola said the issue at the moment is that the specially-modified 2015 test cars supplied by Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull are not producing enough downforce.
“The problem is that we lack the downforce that we need to develop the new tyres,” he said.
“The teams are working to ensure that the grip level goes up for the next steps, because at the moment we can’t properly load the tyres to reproduce what we will see next year,” Isola added.