Pirelli Happy With 2014 F1 Tire Performance

Pirelli Formula One boss Paul Hembery says that the teams made good progress with its latest tires in Bahrain this week, and the conclusion is that they are more consistent and durable than last year. Pirelli admits that it has taken a conservative route, but Hembery repeated that the company is willing to make changes if necessary.

“The teams were able to learn more about tires over the four days in Bahrain than they could in Jerez two weeks ago, thanks to increased running time and optimal weather conditions,” said Hembery. “Although the teams are still at a comparatively early point on the development curve with their new cars, testing data so far indicates that the 2014 tires are more consistent and durable than their predecessors. As a result, we are also seeing fewer ‘marbles’ on the circuit: one of our objectives at the start of this season.

“However, teams are likely to improve their performance and understanding of the car-tire package still further in the test to come, which means that the lap time differences we have been seeing between the compounds are likely to come down, especially when the teams discover more downforce as the season goes on. We’ve collected plenty of useful data from this test, but of course we are still ready and able to change the specification of the tires for the start of the season if this is shown to be necessary.”

Pirelli also made an interesting comparison between the performance of the four available tires, noting: “The performance differences in Bahrain between the compounds so far are approximately as follows: the supersoft is around 0.7 seconds per lap faster than the soft, the soft is around 1.2 seconds per lap quicker than the medium, and the medium is around 1.3 seconds per lap quicker than the hard. These gaps should come down considerably as the cars evolve.”