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Pirelli's head of motorsport Mario Isola believes drivers will be able to push hard from the start to the end of the French Grand Prix this weekend.
The Italian manufacturer is bringing the C2, C3 and C4 compounds to the weekend, which it admits is a more conservative option than 2018, as the 'ultrasoft' compound is no longer in its range.
Last year, Pirelli used a thinner gauge tyre at three Grands Prix, including France, a structure that it has adopted completely for the 2019 season.
Pirelli believes that this will allow it to make direct comparisons as to how the tyre has evolved from 12 months ago.
"Our tyre choice this weekend is slightly more conservative than the 2018 soft, supersoft and ultrasoft tyres that we brought to France last year, as the supersoft is no longer part of the 2019 range," Isola said.
"Consequently, the drivers should be able to push hard from the start to the finish of each stint. Along with Barcelona and Silverstone, we used the thinner gauge tyres in France last year, so we can again make a direct comparison about how the cars have evolved from 2018."
Isola says that there is still much for Pirelli to learn, as it is only the second year F1 has run at the Paul Ricard circuit since bringing on Pirelli as the sole tyre supplier.
Much of the track has also been resurfaced since the 2018 French Grand Prix, meaning tyre degradation should be reduced.
"Although a large part of the circuit has been re-asphalted, it should not make much difference to the track’s characteristics," Isola added. "With this being only the second time at the circuit, teams still do not have a full complement of data, so we will see plenty of learning.
"We have already used Paul Ricard for testing this year, but that has been on a much shorter, separate configuration rather than the full Grand Prix circuit."
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Replies (3)
Login to replyxoya
Posts: 583
They can, but they almost certainly won't.
f1fan0101
Posts: 1,804
which is a shame. What would you like to see done with the tyres?
xoya
Posts: 583
I don't think that tyres are that big of a deal.
Bigger problem is the engine, which needs to be preserved, and a limited amount of fuel per race.
Basically, we are watching races of attrition and that is the core problem of modern F1.
High tech, expensive cars which cannot be pushed to the max, because it is too expensive to keep them going, combined with the largest amount of races ever seen in an F1 season.