Pirelli hopes the introduction of softer compounds will help reverse the trend seen towards the end of the season, in which teams got to grips with the high wear rate.
The Italian manufacturer returned to Formula 1 as the sole supplier of tyres in 2011 with the aim of increasing overtaking. The season saw a record amount of passing, which many attributed to the Pirelli tyres which wore much quicker than the previous seasons Bridgestone tyres.
However, toward the end of the year, the regular three or four pit-stops fans had become accustomed to with Pirelli, were a thing of the past as drivers and teams better managed the high-degredation.
Pirelli hopes to reverse this trend by closing the compound gaps, with softer tyres across the board.
“It’s ironic that at the start of the year some people thought our tyres were too radical, but the teams got to grips with them so quickly, that by the end of the year some people were saying we were too conservative,” Pirelli’s motorsport director Paul Hembery told The F1 Times in an exclusive interview.
“For 2012 we will have some new compounds and also a new profile for the tyres: the idea is to reduce the performance gap between the compounds in order to make the racing even closer,” he added.
“Generally speaking, all the compounds are softer, although we’re keeping the same designations as last year: supersoft, soft, medium and hard.”
For the upcoming season, the only tyre which will remain the same is the super soft compound, Hembery confirmed, whilst the harder tyre will be much closer to last seasons medium in the hope that two or three stops will once again be the norm.
“The 2012 hard tyre is much closer to last year’s medium compound. These are some of the quickest tyres that we have ever produced and they are definitely more biased towards performance. In spite of that, the degradation rate has actually been improved, and we’re still aiming to see between two and three pit stops at every race. The gaps between the compounds are also much closer, which should lead to some interesting race strategies.”
You can check out the full Q&A in our pre-season e-magazine, available to view online and download soon.
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