The
opening five races in the 2013 Formula One season have been and gone
and instead of the fans talking about the Red Bull Supremacy or how
Lotus have been the underdogs and could be dark horses for the
championship taking a total of 5 podiums and one victory , they are
talking about something a little more serious. The life of the
Pirelli tires.
This
has been the main talking point of the championship since the very
first round with drivers, team bosses and fans alike all up in arms
about how limited this years rubber is proving to be. The tires
degrade so quickly and most drivers had to perfect a 4 stop strategy
this past weekend in Spain.
In
my opinion Pirelli have got this completely wrong. In an attempt to
make the racing more exciting and add another factor into the
championship, they have changed it from “racing” to a tire
management game. If Pirelli want to gain a lot of publicity and show
how durable their road tires are, this is not the way to go about it.
People are complaining after around 5-10 laps that the tires have
completely gone and this should not be happening in any form of
racing let alone Formula One. If this was Formula 3 and it was making
the drivers stop halfway into a race then that would add another
level of excitement and unpredictability. But with races on the
calendar up to 70 laps long this is not the right home for them.
Paul
Hembery said
Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya "was very demanding on the
tyres because of the unique characteristics of this circuit.” One
key phrase to take note of there, “Unique characteristics”. If
this was the case then why has it happened at EVERY race on the
calendar so far? If anything, the Circuit de Catalunya is normally
quite easy on tire wear in comparison to some of the tracks on the
calendar.
In
Pirelli’s defence the idea did not originate from their own company
and they politely agreed to it to make F1 more exciting. If you find
cars pitting in after 6 laps of racing exciting then you will love
the opening half of the season so far. But if like me you want to see
drivers race until there is nothing left on the tires and to leave
every bit of energy out on the tarmac, doing the best they can to
make a move then this season may not be the best to show your best
friend why F1 is your favorite sport.
Hembery
also added in an interview to the BBC "Unless you all want us to
give Red Bull the tires to win the championship. It's pretty clear.
If we did that, there would be one team that would benefit and it
would be them. “
Again this is a fair point and everyone knows that the Red Bull is ridiculously quick but it is a much closer playing field this year. You can to an extent push the tires in qualifying more than you can in the race due to the lack of life in them and we have seen Mercedes looking extremely competitive, Ferrari taking two victories and Lotus being the most consistent team on the track. But is this down the tires or just to the mid field teams making up a lot of ground on the front runners during the post and pre season?
The
way I see it is Formula One Is a marathon and the drivers are the
runners. How boring would a marathon be if they couldn’t run at
full speed because every mile or two they need to change their shoes
because the sole has come loose? The answer is pretty obvious as it
is no longer a race. It’s who can perfect their strategy and tire
management and that is not what Formula One is about.
F1
is THE pinnacle of motorsport, a place where the best of the best do
battle all over the world in breath taking moments which cannot be
rivaled by any other series. But we are seeing less and less of that
each race these Pirelli’s fail to last over 10 laps. The drivers aren't racing as the word suggests but nursing the tires and treating it like a different sport entirely.It’s up to
Pirelli to make a tire that degrades faster but still leaves the
driver able to race in every sense of the word. Until then though, we
may not truly know who is the fastest man on the circuit.
0 comments:
Post a Comment