Pirelli Tag

By Adam Tate, Managing Editor Last Friday representatives from all 11 Formula One teams met with Charlie Whiting at Heathrow to finalize the 2017 rule book. It was a spectacular failure and since then the countdown to come to an agreement has begun ticking. A second meeting held this week at Pirelli HQ in Milan saw Pirelli’s chairman Marco Provera and motorsport director Paul Hembery meet with FIA President Jean Todt, Bernie Ecclestone, multiple team bosses and a group of drivers including Sebastian Vettel, Felipe Massa, Nico Rosberg and Valtteri Bottas.Read More

By Adam Tate, Managing Editor Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel has topped the time sheets at the close of Pirelli’s pre-season wet weather tire test at Paul Ricard. His best lap of 1:06.750 was just shy of a tenth better than Danil Kvyat managed in the Red Bull. The circuit which hasn’t hosted a Grand Prix since 1990 has evolved into one of the premier test circuits in the world. Pirelli chose it for this and made use of the onsite sprinkler system to test multiple sets of unmarked prototype intermediate and fullRead More

By Adam Tate, Managing Editor McLaren-Honda protege Stoffel Vandoorne topped the time sheets today from Yas Marina in Pirelli’s 12 hour endurance test of its new ultra soft tire compounds. All ten teams tested several unmarked varieties of tire that may or may not become Pirelli’s go to pick for next years most agressive tire compound. The so called ultra softs will be used mainly on street circuits in a bid to decrease lap times, increase the number of pit stops and spice up the on track action. “Whether this willRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief The FIA has found the tire temperature on the Williams machine driven by Felipe Massa to be over the maximum allowed ahead of the start of the race and as a result have thrown the Brazilian out of his home grand prix. The team plans to appeal the decision. The exclusion will take away Massa’s eighth-place finish and push Romain Grosjean to eighth, Max Verstappen to ninth and Pastor Maldonado to tenth. The Mercedes-powered Williams was found to have a right rear tire temperature measured atRead More

Ahead of this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix, the vast majority of Formula One teams have come out against increasing tire dimensions to 18 inches. Current tire supplier Pirelli and Michelin who have recently expressed interest in F1 are both in favor of such a measure. The marketing behind their decision is simple, as road car tires have grown in diameter, having a more road relevant size will help tie in their motorsport activities with their consumer products. In putting marketing and profit measures ahead of sport, the tire manufacturers andRead More

Despite Bernie Ecclestone’s joke that the only thing they can agree to is when to meet, the F1 Strategy Group convenes today to plan for 2017 and beyond. Chief concerns include allowing a fifth engine this season and a fairer allotment of FIA prize money. Neither of which will be addressed because the big 5 present: Ferrari, Mercedes, McLaren, Red Bull and Williams will not want to give up their slice of the pie or hand any concessions to their rivals. Despite Ecclestone’s vehement hatred, the V6 hybrids are setRead More

Pirelli, the tire manufacturer for Formula One, confirmed this week its tire combinations for the next four races on the calendar. The teams are off to Europe for the Spanish Grand Prix at Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona. The May 10th race will feature both the hard and medium compound tires. The hard tires are marked with orange side-walls while the medium tires are shown with white. When Formula One visits Monaco immediately following the Spanish Grand Prix, soft and super-soft tire compounds will be available. The streets of MonteRead More

Pirelli, put some demonstration 18 inch tires on the Lotus E22 chassis at last week’s test in Silverstone to much fan fare. The claim by Pirelli and former F1 suppliers like Michelin is that it’s pointless for them to invest a fortune in tires they can’t discern any reliable data for their road tire programs. They feel that F1’s 13 inch tires do not translate to anything on the road as the last decade has seen a massive increase in wheel and tire sizes across the board in the autoRead More