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Abu Dhabi tyre test crucial for 2019 season

Abu Dhabi tyre test crucial for 2019 season

21-11-2018 15:01
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Nicolás Quarles van Ufford

Ahead of the post-season test in Abu Dhabi, Pirelli racing director Mario Isola has admitted that Pirelli will learn from this F1 season, as tyres with higher degradation don't necessarily mean more stops.

Pirelli made a conscious effort this season to let their tyres degrade more, forcing teams to adjust their tactics and to make more stops. At least, on paper. What happened in reality is that drivers were still doing one-stop races but were simply nursing their tyres for bigger portions of the race. So, instead of making the racing better, it actually made it worse. More degradation doesn't mean more fun. Lesson learned.

“It is clear what emerges from this championship is that if we go softer, if we go with more degradation, they try to manage the pace in order to have one-stop," Isola explained to RaceFans.

"We should learn from that to design something better for next year.”

During the Mexican Grand Prix, nearly every driver was complaining heavily about the tyre degradation they were experiencing. The altitude and thin air of the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez made the tyres almost fall apart if you just looked at them. What teams wanted is to make the tyres a thinner thread, as Pirelli did in for the Spanish, French and British Grand Prix this year.

“We made some modification to the new product, to the thread, in order to try to have less overheating,” Isola continued.

“Also the way in which we have designed the compounds, for example the new compounds have a slightly higher working range in order to protect the compound itself from the overheating.”