Lewis Hamilton has added his voice to the tyre criticism chorus, saying it isn’t fun to continually nurse the tyres throughout the race.
Pirelli has come under pressure to adapt their compounds or revert back to the 2012-spec tyres following official complaints from both Mercedes and Red Bull.
Hamilton admitted the situation had become difficult for the drivers to the point where racing isn’t as enjoyable as it was when they could continually push each and every lap without tyre concerns.
“These tyres make it very hard [for the drivers],” said the 2008 champion. “It’s very difficult to make them last and particularly for me in Malaysia, I wasn’t really able to make my tyres last as much as I wanted. I was fuel saving from an early point in the race which lost me a lot of time but generally these tyres make it… it’s not fun, I didn’t enjoy the race,” he admitted.
The 28-year-old says strategy is playing a more important role than ever, hinting that he’d prefer a return to the more durable days when it was “pure speed racing.”
“It’s not the same as back in the day when you had stints where you are pushing to the maximum the whole time, you had tyres that would last.
“Now you’re just… it’s like you have a hundred dollars and you have to spend it wisely over a period of time. It makes racing a lot different.
“It’s more strategic rather than pure speed racing.”
