Pirelli are hoping they can reduce the amount of marbles that build-up off the racing line following complaints from the drivers.
At present, the tyres shed small pieces of rubber as they wear down which build-up on the circuit and make it difficult to overtake as the attacking driver is forced to run across the marbles which greatly reduces the amount of grip he has.
Following complaints, Pirelli says it will work on reducing the amount of rubber the 2014 tyres discard.
“The drivers certainly have commented on it and we can understand it,” Pirelli’s motorsport boss Paul Hembery said. “So it’s something that we are trying to do.
“We know that it’s clearly wear-related, it’s basically tearing of the tyres in some cases, certainly the super-soft and to an extent the softer tyre have not had the strength that we needed.
“You can see some races where we had almost no marbles when you are using the hard and medium, certain surfaces where it’s low abrasion. So we are working to try and improve that. The general comment from the drivers is ‘reduce marbles’.”
With the increased torque next year thanks to the new engines, it’s likely that wheel-spin will become more common. That in turn will create greater wear on the tyre and cause more marbles. Therefore Hembery admitted it wouldn’t be an easy thing to solve.
“We want to try and improve things like the tear resistance of the compounds, which has a direct impact on marbles which is something we are trying to reduce for next year,” he explained.
“With the increased wheelspin, that has a chance of creating more marbles compared to where we are today, so we have to increase the mechanical strength of the compounds.
“If you go too far, then you just end up with more wheelspin because you’ve got no grip,” he added. “That’s the balance that will be hard to find because we don’t know the real impact of the aero when we start racing.”
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