Williams rookie Lance Stroll says Pirelli’s Formula 1 tyres are “very, very tricky” to understand, compared to rubber used in other series, due to their narrow operating window.
Pirelli has produced wider, more durable tyres under new regulations in Formula 1 this season, though drivers have regularly expressed difficulties at getting the rubber into the right operating window.
Stroll graduated to Formula 1 with Williams as reigning European Formula 3 Champion, and pointed to the tyres as a key difference, compared to junior categories.
“I think tyres are the biggest performance gain in Formula 1 today,” he explained ahead of his home event in Canada.
“You can do an out lap very slow or you can do one very fast and then get into detail about it and you can find a ton of lap time when you get it right and you get in the window.
“Coming from junior categories I think there is a big difference in that from Formula 1.
“In F3, for example, where I come from, F4 as well, you go out, the tyre is very consistent all the time, you have three push laps in qualifying where you can get the lap time you want.
“It’s just very forgiving, it’s very easy, you can slide the tyre, you can do whatever you want, and then just focus on driving.
“But in Formula 1 there’s a lot that comes with getting good out laps, getting the tyre working, and if you miss that, if you get traffic on an out lap, and you don’t get it working the way you want you can lose a massive amount of performance and that just really affects your position on the grid.
“If you have some overheating or something, you slide the surface too much, you go backwards. So these tyres are very, very tricky to understand.”
Stroll is nonetheless optimistic of a good result on home soil as he chases his first points in Formula 1.
“It has been a strong track for us in the past, it suits our car very well, hopefully that remains the same this year,” said Stroll.
“I think we just need to focus on our job. Hopefully a bit of luck will be on our side, that we can have a clean weekend and get the best out of our car. That’s definitely the plan.”
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