Sebastian Vettel says Pirelli’s changes to its tyres for this weekend’s race haven’t made them perform any better.
F1’s official tyre supplier has produced special tyres with thinner tread for this weekend’s race with the aim of helping teams manage the temperatures better.
However Vettel, who yesterday claimed the change came about in response to Mercedes and Red Bull’s problems with the tyres in testing, said he didn’t notice any improvement in how the tyres performed.“I think the biggest change to be honest came from the tyres,” he said. “They seemed to be quite a bit different. I don’t think they are better than they were.
“But it’s the same for everyone. It was quite slippery today, quite gusty as well. A mixed day. I think we can work on the car and we should be bit stronger tomorrow.”
Ferrari ran several modifications to its car for the first time today including new mirrors mounted on its Halo. “Everything that we put on the car seemed to work so that’s important,” said Vettel.
Vettel approves of the changes to the mirrors and said they had been moved to improve the drivers’ vision. “It was quite difficult to see the cars behind [before]. Now they are in a bit different position and I can see a little bit better below the rear wing.
“I think it looks also better. The Halo is still not pretty but it makes it look a little bit better.”
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Markp
11th May 2018, 18:33
They work better for Merc and thats what Pirelli want due to their special relationship.
anon
12th May 2018, 7:35
Funny how we didn’t hear you accusing Pirelli of having a “special relationship” with Ferrari when Pirelli were accused of favouring them with their tyre selections in 2017 – or is it the case that accusation only comes into play when it is a rival team that is accused of benefiting?
Bandit
12th May 2018, 17:07
When Pirelli came into F1 Mercedes did a lot of testing with them and then all of their high end road cars started to be sold on Pirellis. If that’s not a special relationship I don’t know what is.
Miani (@miani)
11th May 2018, 19:42
When you think a F1 car can’t look worse they mount mirrors on the halo. It looks like a pair of eyes, they even did put eyebrows above.
Renee (@renee)
11th May 2018, 20:05
Just when I think the cars can’t get any uglier, Ferrari pull one out of the bag and create this monstrosity. Good god I was born a generation late.
Justin (@boombazookajd)
12th May 2018, 0:51
It’s not pretty by any means, but it does make the halo look more integrated into the car though. @Miani @renee
The thinner tread depth means the tires are easier to heat, and in the case of the supers too easy to overheat, which was my fear. This track has never really been kind to soft rubber and I was hoping that with the resurfacing, we’d see some proper use of the red walled tires. Seems like this is always going to be a one stop race, they’ll start on softs and pop on a set of mediums for a run to the flag.
Unless it cools down, i doubt even a safety car will let a team gamble on supers given how easy it is to overheat them and the thinner tread depth means theres less rubber to work with. More knee jerk reactions to something that was never really a problem to begin with.