Pirelli Should Apologize for F1 Tyre Failures Instead of Shifting Blame to Teams
During the BBC pre-race show before the Belgian Grand Prix, commentator David Coulthard wittily ended a brief exchange with Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery saying, "Congratulations on the win."
Unlike the early 2000s, when Formula One had its last tyre war between Michelin and Bridgestone, Pirelli supply tyres for every team on the grid and are therefore guaranteed to see one of its drivers on the top step of the podium after every race.
Ironically, though, the Belgian Grand Prix turned into Pirelli's worst F1 weekend since the infamous 2013 British Grand Prix, where several high-speed blowouts caused the Italian company to modify its tyre construction.
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This time—at least so far—Pirelli's response has been less than impressive.
On Friday, during the second free practice session at Spa-Francorchamps, Nico Rosberg's right-rear tyre exploded as he approached Blanchimont at more than 300 kilometres per hour.
"I've never seen anything like that before," Mercedes executive director Paddy Lowe told Sky Sports (h/t ESPN F1).
Then, at the end of Sunday's race, the same tyre failed on Sebastian Vettel's car as he accelerated out of the high-speed Eau Rouge-Raidillon section at the beginning of the lap.
"These things are not allowed to happen. If it happens 200 metres earlier, I'm not standing here now," Vettel said in an angry post-race interview, per the BBC's Andrew Benson.
In the aftermath, Pirelli seemed to blame the teams, issuing a statement that Vettel's failure never would have happened if Pirelli's proposal to limit the number of laps for each set of tyres had been accepted two years ago.
That may be true, as Ferrari were clearly pushing the limit by trying to make just one pit stop during the race, but it does not explain Rosberg's failure. Pirelli said it was caused by an external cut, not a problem with the tyre itself, per Autosport's Ian Parkes.
Unfortunately for Pirelli, it will not get sympathy from the fans or the drivers. In Autosport's recent fan survey, 63 percent of respondents want to see more durable tyres return to F1 and 78 percent want a return to competition among tyre manufacturers.
In other words, a lot people are not happy with the current tyre situation.
Therefore, when Pirelli get into a he-said-she-said spat with Vettel, one of the most popular and successful drivers in the sport, well, it's not going to end well for the tyre company.
While Hembery said he understood Vettel's frustration, he also said the tyre, "was at the end of wear life. Any time in the world, when it gets to the end of its wear life then you're going to have a problem," according to Autosport's Ben Anderson and Ian Parkes.
Hembery needs to stand up for his company, but rather than shifting the blame in this situation, it would have been better to acknowledge the drivers' frustrations and promise to come up with a solution.
And what might that solution look like?
In the short term, perhaps the tyre construction needs to be modified, or maybe lap limits do need to be imposed.
Maybe the new style of track construction—where drivers gain, rather than lose, time by running outside the white lines and over the kerbs—is contributing to the problem by unnecessarily increasing tyre wear.
Longer term, Pirelli needs more testing time with current F1 cars. You may remember there has been a lot of controversy surrounding tyre testing in the past, but how can the company be expected to produce top-quality tyres if it can't test them regularly in conditions resembling those of a grand prix weekend?
A renewed tyre war, on the other hand, would not by itself solve F1's tyre issues (although it could be interesting for other reasons). In fact, one of F1's all-time low points came at the 2005 United States Grand Prix, in the midst of the Michelin-Bridgestone battle, when the Michelin-shod cars did not take part in the race due to concerns over tyre durability.
And besides, the FIA has already received bids from Pirelli and Michelin to be the sole tyre supplier from 2017 to 2019, so an on-track competition between suppliers is not going to happen any time soon.
When assessing Pirelli's performance, it is also important to remember that they have been tasked with producing high-degredation tyres—they could produce more durable rubber if asked. That high-deg mandate means tyres reach their limit faster and make blowouts more likely if drivers and teams push those limits.
In the end, it is easy to point fingers, but it is crucial to figure out the actual problems and then fix them. Tyre explosions at speed endanger not only the driver who has the failure, but also trailing cars, if they are hit by a piece of debris.
Pirelli may not be completely at fault, but as the tyre supplier, they should be willing to apologize instead of redirecting the blame—that won't help anyone.
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