Formula 1 stayed on at the Yas Marina Circuit for its traditional two-day post-season tyre test on Tuesday and Wednesday. But what happened, and what happens next? Motorsport Week provides some insight into the situation.
What happened through 2019?
Pirelli undertook 25 days of in-season private tyre testing, as it has done in recent years, with all 10 teams invited at various stages. Those tests were carried out by Pirelli, meaning teams and drivers could not gather data, in order to avoid an unfair advantage being sought. Pirelli brought its 2020-spec C4 compound to the United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas, though Friday’s running was plagued by unseasonably cold conditions. Drivers were largely negative over the 2020-spec C4 and some teams were keen to push for the 2019 tyres to be retained. Teams have had windtunnel models of the 2020 tyres since the start of November, following Pirelli’s final test in Barcelona in early October. The Abu Dhabi tyre test went ahead as scheduled in order for a proper assessment to take place in representative conditions.
What did the teams have available?
For the two nine-hour sessions each team was allowed one car and 10 sets of tyres per day, meaning a total of 20 across the test. 12 of those sets were provided by Pirelli and eight were chosen by the respective teams, due to having the freedom to run their own plan. Pirelli provided two sets each of the 2020-spec C2s, C3s, C4s and C5s, along with two sets each of the 2019-spec C3s and C4s. The C1, the 2020-spec of which is the same as the 2019 version, was not selected due to its unsuitability for the Yas Marina Circuit.
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What did the drivers say?
Not much. Of the 2019 race drivers only Haas' Romain Grosjean and Alfa Romeo's Antonio Giovinazzi were made available to the media, on Tuesday evening and Wednesday lunchtime respectively, with Nicholas Latifi, Roy Nissany, Esteban Ocon and Pietro Fittipaldi the other drivers who officially spoke. GPDA chairman Grosjean cut a frustrated figure explaining that “there are some positives, there are some negatives. Is it a big change and what everyone would like to have? No.” He also doubted that the new tyres would help avoid overheating. When he spoke to the media Giovinazzi had only tried the C3s but admitted “so far the first impression is not really good” and that it was “a little bit slower to be honest, and also on degradation a little bit more, so yeah, just not one positive thing so far.” Giovinazzi also confirmed that Alfa Romeo team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, who drove the C38 the previous day, provided similar feedback.
What did Pirelli say?
Pirelli chief Mario Isola met with the media towards the end of Wednesday afternoon, fresh from speaking with teams, though before the final analysis and round-up. Isola explained that he had received positive feedback regarding the new-spec C5 tyre but “expected something more” from the C4s as “it is the compound I would say has the biggest difference compared to the other compounds in terms of reducing overheating, with less degradation, according to our development tests during the year.” Pirelli accepted that the 2020-spec tyres are slower, with a lower peak grip, in order to try and assist the degradation. “When they feel less grip no driver is coming to you saying it is a better tyre because the grip is what they are looking for,” said Isola. “But those tyres were designed to have more consistency, so the peak of grip is not [there], they don’t feel the peak of grip as in the past, that was the target of the new construction.”
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What happens next?
There is a very small window (excuse the pun) to get the wheels in motion. The deadline for the decision on whether to use 2019 or 2020 tyres is this coming Monday (December 9) and the FIA will not stand in the way of the teams if they want to conduct an e-vote. They have, and will, spend the interim time analysing the data with self-interest expected to be key to the equation. As per the regulations as it stands the 2020 tyres will be used. If seven or more of the 10 teams vote in favour of the 2019 specification then they will be used. Once a decision is made Pirelli will select the compounds for Australia and Bahrain, due to the 15-week deadline, after which teams have one week to make their selections, with pre-season testing choices also looming on the horizon.
If one 2019 compound is better, and one 2020 better, could they not mix and match?
No, that isn’t an option according to Isola. “It’s 2019 compound and construction versus 2020 compound and construction,” he stressed. “Any mix is not possible because we didn’t test the C5 compound on the older construction and we don’t have time to make all this possible across compounds and constructions.” The teams have a straight choice: stick with the 2019 tyres or go ahead with the 2020 rubber for the final year of action on 13-inch wheel rims.
What does Pirelli want to happen?
Pirelli has spent a lot of time, effort and money in developing the 2020 tyres, and they could wind up not being used. But rather than vent frustration at the situation Pirelli insists it has “no concerns” either way, and must learn how to improve itself if the 2020 tyres are indeed rejected. “If the 2020 construction is not achieving what we predicted we need to understand what we have to improve in terms of the process to develop the new tyres: that is important to understand,” says Isola. “If you develop something – it’s the same for aero parts or the engine – development means sometimes you can be successful, sometimes you believe that you have the best solution in the world and then you discover on track it’s not working as expected. It’s important that we learn from this in order to have a better process, or a better connection with the teams for the future. There are already some ideas that I will tell you at a later stage, there are some ideas for the future on how to improve the process.”
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How could Pirelli improve?
Pirelli has, for years, faced various problems. Its product has to be used by 10 different teams, who have cars with different characteristics and which have varying performance levels, with the tyres an easy target. Those cars are also constantly evolving. “The new profile of the rear tyre, the difference is probably less than 4mm, something like that, and they feel the difference,” stresses Isola. “When you change the weight of the tyre by a few hundred grams they immediately feel it, and we are talking about a car of 730kg, so any change on these cars is something they feel in a big way, and they have to learn how to extract the best performance from the tyres. If we talk about the cars, they have full control of what they do, because they develop the cars, they develop the engines, they develop everything, if you talk about the tyres there is a third party, Pirelli, that is developing the tyres, so they are not in the full control of the process, this is the big difference between cars and tyres.” Isola hinted at a standardised mule car without specifically referring to one. “There is no possibility to match the development of the car with the development of the tyres,” he said. “We need to find a way for the future, keeping the test blind, otherwise there is a risk of giving an advantage to some teams, we need to explain or to keep all the teams onboard in order to give them what is necessary to understand, which is the direction of our future development.”
How will the decision affect the racing in 2020?
Tyres, and use thereof, are a crucial part of the race strategy, but Pirelli does not expect drastic differences depending on which year’s tyres are selected. “The 2019 tyres were working quite well, we had a good season, the balance of the season is really positive, we had a lot of action, some nice races,” reflected Isola. “It is possible that we have a bit more overheating [if 2019 tyres are taken], obviously with a higher pressure, or a bit more degradation. I think in that case it is possible that we have a bit more pace management during the race, but nothing else. The other point is teams know very well the [2019] tyres so they have lots of data, so probably we have a bit less unpredictability.”
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