According to Pirelli, lifting the ban on tire warmers will help create better tires for 2025, as they can focus on a single development stream instead of two parallel projects. The goal is to reduce tire overheating, a factor that negatively impacted performance last year. One proposal is to sacrifice part of the warm-up phase to ensure a more stable product during the stint.
Tire discussions continued this year, with Pirelli introducing 18-inch tires in 2022 amid technical rule changes, sparking some controversy among drivers who criticized certain characteristics, particularly the tendency to accentuate understeer.
For the 2023 season, Pirelli aimed to address this by strengthening the front tires, but driver opinions on the effectiveness of this change varied. The common thread in tire analysis revolves around overheating and thermal degradation issues, a significant obstacle this year.
The overheating issue, discussed in the latest F1 Commission meeting, led to Pirelli being tasked with improving tire drivability. The initial plan to lift the tire warmer ban in 2025 was also approved in the same meeting, allowing Pirelli to focus on a single development path.
Simone Berra, Pirelli’s F1 chief engineer, clarified the path forward for testing to produce better compounds for 2025. The focus will be on understanding and improving overheating issues through tire compounds and structure.
Pirelli distinguishes between thermal degradation and wear, aiming to address overheating concerns through compound adjustments rather than structural changes. Feedback from the Las Vegas event provided valuable insights for Pirelli, emphasizing the need for a balanced approach involving both tire structure and compounds. Sacrificing part of the warm-up phase might be a future strategy to enhance stability and reduce overheating susceptibility during stints.
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