Formula One official tyre supplier Pirelli confirmed that it will spice up its selection of tyres at grands prix in order to improve the Formula 1 show, after Scuderia Ferrari German driver Sebastian Vettel said at the post-Abu Dhabi tyre test this week that the 2019 tyres are basically the same.
“The more interesting question is the tyre selection for next year — what tyres Pirelli will take to what tracks,” the German said.
It comes after the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association sat with Pirelli to criticise the fact that the 2018 tyres did not allow the drivers to push. Mario Isola, the Pirelli F1 boss, agreed with Sebastian Vettel that tyre selection will help with that: “The design and the compounds are defined already, but we can change the choice of compounds for the particular grands prix,” he said – “I talked about this with the drivers and teams, and while there is no obvious direction in which everyone would like to move, I want to include the teams in the selection process,” he explained, as reported by Pirelli’s official website.
At the same time, Ross Brawn, the Formula One Managing Director of Motorsports and technical director, is critical of the two-class system in the sport, with the midfield teams seriously lagging behind top three Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull: “Two podiums in 123 races is unacceptable,” he is quoted by Ekstra Bladet, referring to the fact that a non top-three team rarely breaks into the highest places. It is a problem we will tackle with the FIA and the teams,” said Brawn. “There are different solutions on the table, but we all must accept that we cannot continue like this. The future of formula one depends on it.”
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