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[1Lemon]

Pirelli have admitted the tyre management at Barcelona was a bit too far, so we're going to see it cooled off from Silverstone at the latest, but maybe even Montreal. The place where it all began, back in the Bridgestone days...

So the tyre does one complete full turn. How long until it falls off the Cliff?

It all depends how far back from the edge of the cliff you start.

and it depends if you're in a lotus or a merc.

[1Lemon]

So Pirelli are changing the tyres, this is really gonna mess up the dynamics, and I have a feeling we'll see FI go backwards, Red Bull go forwards, Merc go slightly forwards and Sauber move up. This is a very strange thing to do, mess with the tyres mid season, rather than just adding a new harder tyre and shifting everything up one.

[NHcheese]

some of these cars were designed at the start to cope with tyres, and isnt that the right thing to do, the wrong thing is changing the tyres. The teams do the hard thing and desighn the car for the tyres, some have done it well like lotus and now we have another element to formula 1, it makes it harder for the teams. Maybe ina nother twenty years time this will be seen as a point in history when tyers were critical. I think change them next year, not mid season. Change them when they are desighning their cars again, this means teams which this is a disadvantage to will drop back as others move forward meaning those teams will have their hard work dashed and Red Bull will get a life card. DAMN RED BULL!

[Denthúl]

Poor decision and I agree with Boullier. If they were going to change the tyres, it should be at the end of the season and this is quite unfair on the teams who have got to grips with this year's tyres. :/

[racechick]

I'm half way on this. They have crap tyres which stop hugely expensive cars running at their potential ( Alonso has admitted to running at over three seconds off potential pace when winning the Spanish GP, but said thats what we have to deal with now, he was uncomplimentary about the situation)but the Spanish GP went stupid. The first four races were bad, but the Spanish one was ridiculous. I hate these tyres because I want to see the best drivers and the best cars going at it....but I accept that it's unfair to radically change the rules halfway through the season. But Lotus won before the stupidness of Spain, so going back to he less stupidness of the first four races would be a fair compromise. It would be way off what I'd like to see., but with bafoons like Bernie in charge maybe it's the best to hope for,

[stonemonkey]

I wonder if this is the reason Bridgestone quit, after the FIA made them the sole supplier were they putting pressure on Bridgestone to mess around with the tyres the way they're doing with Pirelli and they didn't want to be part of it.

I have never liked the fast degrading tyres, DRS, KERS, all artificial aids to spice up the racing, in my view what this has done is put a bandaid/plaster (depending on what part of the world you are from) on the issue of dull racing instead of fixing the actual problem. For how slow the drivers were traveling during the Spanish GP; we might as well dump the 1.6V6T in and ditch KERS now, what's the point of 800bhp if the tyres don't allow that power to be used?

I have no problem with KERS but agree with the rest, tyres should lose grip before they lose their integrity but as it is when the drivers try to use the grip of the tyre it falls apart.

[Denthúl]

But Lotus won before the stupidness of Spain, so going back to he less stupidness of the first four races would be a fair compromise. It would be way off what I'd like to see., but with bafoons like Bernie in charge maybe it's the best to hope for,

It's not really a compromise, as it isn't the tyres that have changed since then...

[racechick]

But they have. They got worse for Spain.

[andrew]

I thought the tyres had been the same for the past 5 races?

Circuit de Catalunya is often quite hard on tyres anyway.

[Jabberwocky]

It is all rubbish cars are built around these tyres. This argument is just teams who can not get to grip (pun not intended) with the tyres whining and the teams who have are saying why should we change them.

[Denthúl]

But they have. They got worse for Spain.

They haven't changed at all. The performance was indeed different at Catalunya, but not as a result of any change in the tyre properties; it was down to the circuit and conditions on that weekend. Changing the tyres would be ridiculous mid-season.

[What's Burning?]

But the tires are changing for everyone... Lotus would still be better than everyone else on whatever new compounds are introduced.

[Jabberwocky]

Not really. Think how the change for the bridgestone runners was when they moved to Michelin.

[racechick]

It is all rubbish cars are built around these tyres. This argument is just teams who can not get to grip (pun not intended) with the tyres whining and the teams who have are saying why should we change them.

Thats not quite true . Ferrari are managing the tyres very well but Alonso says he was running over three seconds off the potential pace of the car. He says its gone too far.

[spankyham]

But the tires are changing for everyone... Lotus would still be better than everyone else on whatever new compounds are introduced.

IMO that's not true. In fact, I think Lotus stand to be big losers here. From what I've heard from Pirelli it seems they will change the structure of the tire and will be releasing to the teams the new data for their CFD and WT testing. The tire deformation etc will indeed change. That's pretty much fact. Below is my interpretations so can and should of course be read with a grain of salt

My opinion as to why the Lotus is so good on tires is because they have built their chassis on a "soft suspension" philosophy. Ferrari have a "variable" suspension philosophy. Red Bull and Merc have a rigid philosophy. Probably oversimplifying things here but Rigid=best aero results.Red Bull rely on a very rigid setup with a well defined rake and have done for many years now. Lotus and Ferrari were heavily influenced by the tire data that Pirelli gave the teams last year to prepare their 2013 chassis for.

More supposition on my behalf ..... another contributing factor to the tires failing so badly for some teams this year is because of the the added weight and rubber (I know its not really rubber on these tires) applied to the 2013 tires. From memory the 4 tires are 2Kg heavier this year (mostly on the rears) - that's quite a lot of added rubber. Additionally teams have improved performance this year. More performance means more energy being pushed through the tire. More energy equals more heat. If you keep the car rigid, then nearly all that extra energy goes into the tires and materializes as heat. Too much heat and the tire grains and fails - fast. That is why Merc and RB are so good in Q - they heat up their tires very fast. Ferrari have shown their ability on the practice sessions to match Merc and RB in pace, yet when they roll out the F138 for Q it seems to be off the pace. I believe they are softening the suspension, forgoing some Q speed but gaining race pace through improved tire management. Remember, a softer suspension means that not all the downforce aero energy is ending up in the tire - so the tire doesn't overheat. If you recall, the Lotus, in Barcelona, was so good at tire temp management that it was able to run on the option tire most stints and still get the life needed.

I'm against the changes to the tires as I see it as simply helping teams that didn't do a good job of designing this year's car as other teams did. They should keep the existing rubber, Pirelli can go for harder compounds each race and not put gaps between prime and option tire. But they should keep this years rubber as is because that is the fair thing to do.

Wearing my Tifosi red-tinted glasses .... I think the big loser here will be Lotus as a big chunk of their advantage will be wiped out in one hit. But I don't think this is going to hurt Ferrari much at all. In fact, it may have the reverse effect. Ferrari will not have to compromise their Q speed and, as I believe their aero package is very good (see my post in the Ferrari section on the Barcelona practice data), it may in fact make the F138 gain even more. I guess that remains to be seen....