Mario Isola, the Head of F1 and Car Racing at Formula 1’s sole tyre supplier, admited to being is “very excited” to be part of the Formula 1 “revolution” in 2022 with the sport changing from 13-inch to 18-inch tyres. The Italian manufacturer will, however, seek to make ‘compromises’ in order to balance the need for on-track action with the requests of drivers and teams for tyres that allow flat-out attack.
Formula 1 will combine the radically new aerodynamic regulations with 18-inch, lower-profile Pirelli tyres. The larger wheels have been in use in Formula 2 since the beginning of 2020 with Formula 1 teams also testing the configuration with mule cars this year.
“I’m very excited because I believe that the new car looks very good. The target to have close racing is the right one. We had a lot of discussions in the various sporting committee meetings about this approach, that is not just about overtaking, but having close racing, having action on track and making those overtaking moves more difficult but also possible because if overtaking is too easy it’s not exactly what the fans want to see. They want to see close racing. All the package has been designed to achieve this target. Obviously, we are also happy next year to continue our development in order to fine-tune the product for 2023. Next year, we will have the real cars for testing and so it will be important to continue and to keep the 25 days of testing that we have in our allocation to target further development for 2023.” – Pirelli motorsports boss Mario Isola explained.
Pirelli has always attempted to offer tyres that will yield specific results on track with increased levels of degradation after an era where tyres could last entire race distances.
“We always said that since 2011 that we want to give to Formula 1 a tyre that is what they want.” – Mario Isola concluded.
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