Pirelli 2013 F1 tyre range

[Brogan]

There's an interesting article on the new Pirelli tyre range for the 2013 season on the F1 site.

Look away now if you're not a fan of degradation...

Formula One tyre suppliers Pirelli have unveiled what they describe as a ‘revolutionised’ new range of tyres for the 2013 season, with the aim of producing more pit stops and increasing overtaking.

Both the dry and wet-weather tyre ranges have been revised with compounds becoming softer, the structure of the tyres more flexible and the shoulder of the tyres reinforced.

The Italian manufacturer has said that the object of these changes was to improve performance and to increase thermal degradation in order to ensure at least two pit stops per car, per race and to open up more strategic options for the teams.

http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2013/1/14205.html

I'm slightly confused as to why so many people in the business think overtaking still needs to be improved.
Even if they continue to ignore our data, Mercedes came up with almost identical figures and those have been published on the F1 site and discussed on Sky and BBC.

How many more than an average of 60 overtakes per Grand Prix are they actually aiming for?
And what's the point of an overtake on a car with tyres which have all the performance of a melted marshmallow?

 

[FB]

Add in the fact that an increased number of pit stops means less need to overtake, as was proven in the bad old days of in-race refuelling.

 

[landogeorgelewis1]

I like how we've got an orange mark around the hard tyre now, as the silver one you couldn't really tell what tyre the drivers had on.

 

[Blog Zbod]

The tail wags the dog.

 

[Speshal]

http://cliptheapex.com/threads/pirelli-shows-early-signs-of-senile-dementia.5895/

 

[Slyboogy]

It would be good if they actually made proper wet and intermediate tyres, they seem to be really poor.

As for more degradation, I suppose they want more strategic play, but they could already have that if they didn't have the mandatory pit-stop rule, using both compounds, and the top 10 starting on the tyres they qualified.

Why they still have those rules just bemuses me.

 

[teabagyokel]

Slyboogy - The 2002 knee-jerk is still alive.

 

[GeoffP]

I'm afraid my perspective is that this is just another example of the regulations on race, car and material specs defining where and and how overtakes will happen. F1 is moving to the scalextric world where it is impossible to pass under normal conditions, but when the situation dictated a pass is inevitable.

Makes you wonder, will Robert Kubica get an F1 test drive before drivers are deemed an unneccesary disadvantage to the smoothe flow of the race?

 

[FB]

As one of the video games companies has proven, you can get a spotty youth from the PS3 generation to go pretty quickly in a racing car so why not have the cars driven remotely? 12 year old boy becomes F1 World Champion!

 

[canis]

FB Ferrari are already using that idea, they run video games competitions to find potential drivers who then compete on the track (or at least they did for the past 2 years). Is a world wide competition that brings he finalists to Maranello to drive various race spec cars and there is potential advancement beyond the competition into a serious career if you are good enough....

 

[F1 Shift.net]

Let me first say that I am a fan of what Pirelli has done, however, I hope for 2014 they have a little more consistency with their tires. I think the new engine regs will be enough drama

 

[Brogan]

Interestingly, due to the revised Pirelli tyre compounds, the minimum car weight has been increased from 640kg to 642kg.

 

[snowy]

Pirelli's Paul Hembery is adept at talking out of his exhaust pipe:

“All the compounds and constructions have changed for 2013, and the drivers should notice a wider working range and a bigger window of peak performance,”

One lap doesn't strike me as a particularly large window of peak performance.

 

[teabagyokel]

snowy - Bigger than the window of peak performance last year which consisted at times of a timing sector.

 

[Fenderman]

Does anyone know if there is to be a televised version of the historic sport of "Taking Candy From Babies"? Oh, wait ...

 

[Slyboogy]

Pirelli and F1 in general want to create tyres that wear quickly, but don't they realise that last year, the driver leading into Turn 2 won the race, except when reliability, and a wet weekend was involved (plus the Austin race)?

 

[teabagyokel]

Slyboogy - The driver leading into Turn 2 normally wins an F1 race, that has been true down the ages.

Those races where that didn't happen were:

Malaysia, Spain, Canada, Europe, Great Britain, Singapore, Abu Dhabi, USA and Brazil.

That's 4 genuine races, 3 leaders retiring, 2 wet races and a partridge in a pear tree...

I jest. But Spain, Canada, GB and USA were all genuine races not won by their leaders Alonso, Vettel, Alonso and Vettel respectively.

 

[tooncheese]

I jest. But Spain, Canada, GB and USA were all genuine races not won by their leaders Alonso, Vettel, Alonso and Vettel respectively.

Maldo?

 

[teabagyokel]

tooncheese - Alonso led lap 1 at Barcelona.

 

[tooncheese]

teabagyokel As you were then.