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[LewEngBridewell]

My thoughts on Pirelli are mixed.

I have preferred having a sole tyre supplier, rather than a tyre war, which can sometimes be a big factor on one team's dominance, such as we saw in 2002, for example.

The move from Bridgestone to Pirelli has been an interesting one... with the aim of recreating crazy races like the one we witnessed at Montreal back in 2010. They certainly succeeded with that in the first half of the season, with some races being absolutely wild. I'm all for that.

However, there's no doubting that qualifying has suffered as a result of the new rules, and that drivers who like to attack have sometimes been penalized. Mind you, not penalized as heavily as in 2005........

So there are pros and cons to Pirelli's first season back in F1. But they seem to be fully open to criticism and suggestions from what I've gathered, so it wouldn't do to write them off just yet.

[myownalias]

I don't believe that anyone is blaming Pirelli themselves, everything the tyre manufacturer has done has been at the behest of his Bernieness.

[andrew]

Pirelli were told to make fragile tyres and they did just that. The problem was that the idea fragile tyres looked good on paper but in practice it was awful. The rules this year have seen a few learning curves with DRS, fragile tyres and the reintroduction of KERS so there are bound to be a few mistakes. Hopefully the lessons learned this season will be taken forward into next season.

[Hansy]

I seriously don't understand all this bashing of fast-degrading tyres. It was by far the best change for 2011 and what ultimately turned the tables on the overtaking problem. The qualifying situations are another issue altogether, but then again, it's just qualifying - I'd much rather have problems in qualifying and exciting races than entertainment qualifying but races decided on Saturday... I was seriously sick of the boredom pre-2011. What I fear is that this policy is going to be abandoned, as it happened on some of the later races - Pirelli went "conservative", therefore the race sucked. Give me fast tyres and 3-4 pitstops any day.

By the way, the "nursing tyres" excuse is bullpoo. Drivers don't go all-out in most situations, they have to nurse the chassis, the engine, the fuel load... tyres are just another variable. And proper nursing leads to different strategies, like what Sauber tried often, which in my book is only a good thing.

[scotty]

Seeing how well a driver can nurse his tires may be an absolutely fantastic skill, but don't try to pass it off as exciting.

If you have literally one driver simply on track with no point of comparison then no, you're correct, but that is kind of missing the point completely and is actually somewhat irrelevant in practice - as a fundamental byproduct of that style of racing you get guys at different stages of a stint on different grip levels, which in F1 actually allows on track fighting rather than just following in the train where everyone is at a similar performance level (because as we know the dirty air is too prevalent). So here, instead, you end up with a situation of people running at different pace due to the tyres, which breeds unpredictability - and i'd say unpredictably is the single most exciting thing in any sport but especially here... so me 'trying to pass it off as exciting' under the criteria you assume i am using is a completely incorrect allegation it would seem.

Being able to make an overtake isn't the be all and end all of F1 - point is you said we're not seeing the full capability of the drivers now but you appear to only be thinking in terms of only certain aspects of 'capability' with that.

As for qualifying, i still don't really see a loss in not seeing a Q3 tail ender do a token lap. You can watch practice to see guys driving round for the sake of setting a time. This may well be a different case next season but as i said for the most part in 2011 it wasn't cause the Force Indias of this world could never challenge the top guys on merit.

What I'm calling artificial is the precipice of a fall off that was DESIGNED into the tires, yes in my opinion that is artificial, like a lot of other thing in the sport today designed to increase overtaking.

I am still trying to see how you can say something can be artificial, where it's the same situation for everyone. It doesn't create overtaking by just handing one guy an advantage like DRS does, the drivers and teams have to work to gain an advantage over their competitors through the tyres. How is simply doing a better job with what you've got artificial, seriously?

That's a stretch, but if we are projecting logic, the issue is really over regulating the sport, not under regulating it.

It's no more a stretch than some of your arguments, given what you are saying about things being designed into the sport for entertainment's sake. However i agree about over regulation (to an extent - some regs are necessary otherwise it'd be madness).

[What's Burning?]

If every woman got breast implants, they'd still be artificial. The fact they've all got them and that they're the same for everyone, and yes according to your argument some would still sport them more skillfully than others, but that does not deny the fact that they're artificial. Meaning not how they're supposed to be in a natural state. We're not going to convince one another, but a tire that falls off of a cliff after X number of laps instead if degrading gradually to me is artificial.

[darwin dali]

To be fair and balanced:

If every man got a circumcision, they'd still be artificial. The fact they've all got them and that they're the same for everyone, and yes according to your argument some would still sport them more skillfully than others, but that does not deny the fact that they're artificial. Meaning not how they're supposed to be in a natural state. We're not going to convince one another, but a tire that falls off of a cliff after X number of laps instead if degrading gradually to me is artificial.

[scotty]

Fake tits/dicks/whatever being used as a comparative tool to F1 tyres, now i've seen it all Really not an effective means of making a point here as far as i'm concerned, but it's amusing enough anyway.

[What's Burning?]

It's going to be a long silly season.

[bud]

Bring back the one tyre per race rule if you want to see drivers nurse home a cars tyres.

[Frontrunner]

The Pirelli's seem to suit certain drivers better where as the Bridgestone tyres suit most drivers, It just seems the Bridgestone tyres seem to be more of a level playing field than the Pirelli's, the Pirelli's seem to reward drivers that have the driving style that nurses there tyres.

But I don't think Pirelli effected the championship result, Vettel was on song this year but if the 2011 season was on Bridgestone tyres, Vettel could of worked maybe a little harder for his 2nd title.

[racechick]

Bring back the one tyre per race rule if you want to see drivers nurse home a cars tyres.

Yes. And I can appreciatethe skill involved in nursing tyres in that way, rather more than the lottery we now have when the tyre suddenly falls off the cliff.

Alonso was a sitting duck at the end of races this year. You knew he'd get overtaken. Id rather have seen him racing than sitting on tyres that wouldnt work.

[andrew]

The current rules are rubbish! There should be qualifying tyres like the heyday, and none of this enforced tyre change, sauber in particular could of had great results by running the whole race on one set!!!!

F1 is more spec-series where one team (the sugar drinks) are given a free pass by Bernest cause he likes their top driver, to bend rules.

Shut-up Fraffy Pants.

[andrew]

Bring back the one tyre per race rule if you want to see drivers nurse home a cars tyres.

Yes. And I can appreciatethe skill involved in nursing tyres in that way, rather more than the lottery we now have when the tyre suddenly falls off the cliff.

Alonso was a sitting duck at the end of races this year. You knew he'd get overtaken. Id rather have seen him racing than sitting on tyres that wouldnt work.

As far as tyres go, I'd like to see an unlimited number of tyres per driver per race and none of this having to use both compounds in each race. Let each driver use as many or as few as they like and use whatever compund they like. The top 10 having to race on the same tyre that they set their fastest time Q3 time on is nonsence.

[What's Burning?]

To be fair and balanced:

If every man got a circumcision, they'd still be artificial. The fact they've all got them and that they're the same for everyone, and yes according to your argument some would still sport them more skillfully than others, but that does not deny the fact that they're artificial. Meaning not how they're supposed to be in a natural state. We're not going to convince one another, but a tire that falls off of a cliff after X number of laps instead if degrading gradually to me is artificial.

Fair an balanced indeed... how sexist of me. My apologies.