Following the crashes in Baku, in the press release issued at the end of the analyzes conducted, Formula 1 official tyre supplier Pirelli was rather vague speaking of “circumferential breaks on the inner side of the tires that can be related to the running conditions of the tire” despite the starting point required parameters (minimum pressure and maximum temperature in the thermo-blanket) had been respected.
Statements that did not fully clarify what happened; however, according to what we had gathered, Pirelli had the impression that at least three teams were ‘playing’ a lot with the pressures as they attempted to increase their performance.
On Friday at Paul Ricard, Pirelli’s Head of F1 & Car Racing, Mario Isola came out into the open. Pirelli, rightly, was not going to pass for someone who puts the lives of drivers at risk. The comments of Verstappen (“I think the Pirelli press release is a bit vague”) and Sebastian Vettel (“If I have faith in the tires? I can’t say 100% yes, as I can’t say 100% no”) certainly didn not help.
“What happened in Baku derives from different expected driving conditions than the actual ones” – said the Italian manager – “This caused the breakdowns”.
Technically, the ‘fault’ lies with the standing waves. Pirelli controls the latter through pressure; below a certain value, they begin to form, causing a lot of strain on the side of the tire.
“We did not reach the operating conditions we expected, not because the teams were doing something against the regulations, but because they were looking for performance as usual, and this created a scenario different from what we expected. And the different scenario was that mainly the tires had lower pressure than our expectations “.
Fia and Pirelli, working together, reacted immediately by tightening the controls and raising the pressure on the rear by as much as 2 psi (21.5 psi) for this seventh round of the season.
Hamilton was quite tough in the press conference: “For me and my team, the rules and guidelines are clear on how we can work with the tires. That’s why I was very surprised that Pirelli and Fia have issued a clarification on this ”.
The seven-time world champion is still ‘satisfied’ even if he added: “In my opinion what is really crucial is how we will monitor everything, because up until now there has been no monitoring of how the tires have been used, of how pressure and temperature varied. We need to improve ”.
Ferrari is also happy with the update of the protocols (DT003) because it believes that the wider gap that the SF21 pays in the race compared to qualifying may also depend on this technical factor.
“It’s no secret that the teams try to cool the tires as much as possible to protect them from overheating.” – said Carlos Sainz – “Pirelli tires have always suffered from overheating so everyone is fighting with the rear. In Baku it was important to protect the rear, so I’m sure every team was doing everything possible to keep temperatures and pressures as low as possible,” continued the Spaniard.
“We, for example, are very good in qualifying at warming up the tires, less so in the race with overheating. What has been released on pressure management can give us some clues as to why we are not so good in the race, clarications on why we are able to make the tires work better in qualifying than in the race compared to our competitors”.
Ferrari arrives in France with the now usual ‘Low Profile’ although internally there is more confidence. “At Paul Ricard we will go back to where we were in Barcelona or fighting in the midfield together with McLaren, Alpine, AlphaTauri and the others.” said Carlos Sainz.
The SF21 heats up the tires faster than the MCL35M but at Paul Ricard it won’t be a big deal to ‘turn them on’. Just as it is faster in the slow corners while the car of Norris and Ricciardo on the straights and in the fastest corners. The French track, however, has a layout with many medium-fast corners, where the SF21 has struggled the most at this start of the season.
To improve its behavior, a new modified front wing will make its debut in the external sidewalk and in the incidence adjustment support, now more moved towards the outside. With the same adjustment, on the new specification the modification will result in a greater increase in aerodynamic load since it is the internal part of the flap that is adjusted.
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