Pirelli has alleviated any concerns that a switch to different rim sizes in Formula 2 this year will negatively affect the quality of racing – or pure speed – of the championship.
The company’s 18-inch rims will be used in a competitive situation for the first time in Formula 2 this season, a year ahead of Formula 1’s switch from the current 13-inch tyres.
The F2/18, used in the championship since 2018, has had minor modifications – most prominently to the suspension – in order to accommodate the change.
But Pirelli has stressed that the core values of the championship will be unchanged.
“Historically Formula 2 anticipates what happens in Formula 1 as it is a championship that prepares the drivers for a future driving in Formula 1,” Pirelli boss Mario Isola told MotorsportWeek.com.
“The feedback from the drivers who have done the development tests [on 18-inch tyres] was quite positive.
“They could drive the car more or less the same way [as on the previous tyres], and also the request from the promoter [Bruno Michel] was to keep the same approach for Formula 2 tyres.
“He wants degradation, he wants overtaking on track, he is very happy of the result that we achieved in the last nine years that we are supplying Formula 2 [and GP2].
“We always had very good action on track, very good championships with a lot of drivers fighting for victory and we don’t want to change this.
“We can clearly compare the performance of the 18-inch tyre to the 13-inch tyre and during our development tests we saw that the level of performance is the same.
“With 18-inch tyres we did the same lap time that we did during the race weekend, so that means I’m not expecting to have a slower championship or a slower car this year.”
Formula 2’s feeder series Formula 3 will retain its current specification tyres until at least 2022.
“Formula 3 was launched last year so we have to wait for the normal life cycle of the car that is at least three years, to avoid any extra cost for the teams,” confirmed Isola.
“Formula 3 is currently using a smaller tyre so it’s impossible to go up to 18-inch tyres otherwise the rim would be bigger than the tyre!
“But we can consider to change the size, I don’t know, 15 inches or 16 inches; we need to have this discussion with the promoter in the future.
“I’m not sure that changing the size in the future is the right direction [for Formula 3] but obviously this is a discussion we will have with the FIA and the promoter.”
