Overheating the reason for Austin 2020 compound testing, not grip - Isola

Pirelli F1 chief Mario Isola has spoke on drivers' concerns over the proposed 2020 tires, saying that the testing of grip was not the main focus of the tire running during free practice 1 of last weekend's United States Grand Prix.

Many drivers, including Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel and crowned 2019 champion Lewis Hamilton, spoke out about the new prototype tires for next season, after all teams ran the prototype tires during the practice session.

Isola explains that one of the main areas of focus during the test was to tackle the issues of overheating with the current tires, which eventually could not be achieved due to the cold temperatures around the circuit on Friday.

"It depends on what the targets are," Isola explained. "First of all the tests were at very low temperature, which we were looking for an overheating reduction. That was not possible to identify on a short run with cold temperatures.

"I heard comments on less grip on the new tire, but the target was not really to increase the grip. There should be more or less the same level of grip but with an increase of consistency, that is exactly what we have experienced during our tests.

"The 2020 construction and compounds have been tested more than once on different cars, and in general we had this result and it was evaluated better in terms of consistency."

Tarmac aggression, not bumps main issue for tires

Isola also explained briefly that Pirelli were generally not concerned due to the issue of severity of bumps on the circuit, which also became a voice of concern for the drivers over the weekend.

Isola said that Pirelli conducted the necessary simulations and investigations both before and during the race weekend, and found that the bumps gave no real concern on the tires' pressures or compounds. 

"We didn't consider the bumps in the tire pressure," Isola said. "Obviously we did a simulation before coming here, and we confirmed the prescription. As you know, we check some tires, we investigate how is the construction and so on.

"It is a very high speed circuit. Comparing Austin from our first year, the tarmac was much smoother, and now with the aging of the tarmac it has become much more aggressive so this is the biggest effect on tires rather than the bumps that are affecting the performance."