Pirelli tires: Good or bad? (Spoilers)

If every race for the rest of the season is like today's, then the Pirellis are what the doctor prescribed.

 

There doing good, although I'd say Alonso had more to do with Hamilton's rear tyre wear.

 

Good - it's exciting!

All the best,
Andrew.

 

Pirelli were asked to improve the show and they did...now get rid of these ridiculous wings please...

 

Actually according to McLaren's data not true.

 

You don't need data, clearly you didn't see Alonso ram Hams rear in the race then.

 

I saw it very well. No one is saying that it didn't happened. But according to the commentary from the BBC Hamilton did not suffer any tire damage from the incident. They were commenting on McLaren sending info about stable tire pressure. Lewis had problem with his tires before the incident and I lost count how many times during the race they called him from the pits to tell him to look after the tires. He is just notorious for abusing them.
It is amazing to me how some people could never admit the shortcomings of their favs. No matter how great a fan of Alonso one is, Hami can't be blamed for the accident. And no matter how big of Hamilton fan one is, there is no way denying his driving style is not friendly to the tires.
Alonso threw away his podium by misjudging the distance and Hamilton threw away his podium by not looking after his tires. No big deal.

 

The Pirelli tires are quite bad and that's a good thing.

 

I agree, Button showed that up, same car same tyres.

 

I like them up to a point. The tracks now look like poorly maintained road with way too much debris from the tires. When that debris hurts or hinders a driver then we will get change. Wearing out is fine its a bit much id say.

 

Bingo. I was worried from reports during pre-season testing that the Pirelli tires were going to leave way too many marbles, and that was certainly the case today. By 1/3 race distance you could see marbles all over the track, just off-line, on camera. There's no doubt that has a negative impact on the racing - you could see drivers thinking about overtaking, but ducking back behind as the braking zone approached because there's no chance of outbraking your opponent if you're on the marbles.

Tires slowing down, requiring more pit stops - good. Marbles all over the track, ruining natural overtaking - BAD. This reminds me of the bad old days of the Michelin/BS tire wars, where marbles were terrible. Remember Montreal 06, where Villeneuve slid off track while overtaking a back marker? Not being aggressive, just moved off-line and it became like ice with so many tire marbles.

 

I didn't see anything that has pointed to Lewis wearing his tires quickly this season. His tire wear was very good in Melbourne, and today they pulled him in earlier than they needed to in his stints. His pace was down immediately after putting on the final set, so either they were too worn already from quali or the prime's just unbalanced the car at that point in the race. Both Martin and David commented that Lewis has really smoothed his driving this season.

 

He is most certainly better as the commentators commented on it, he has adopted a smoother style, but as Button was saying in the press conference, it is very hard to get the right balance, regards to tyre wear.

 

Really bizarre though how dramatically he fell off on the final set. Assuming nothing changed on Mark's car from the beginning of the race to the end, he was a good example of why they should keep enough new sets for the race. Nick too.

 

Did anyone else notice the ridiculous rubber marble effect? Towards the end of the race, getting off of the racing line seemed like a fatal idea...

 

Yes, posts #11 and 12 commented on this.

 

They call that the cliff effect, like falling off a cliff all of a sudden no grip.

 

oops I missed those

 

Not sure Pirelli thought the exposure element through.

I'd say a good portion of the great unwashed will believe the brand makes an inferior product, unaware the increased pit stops and resultant by-product were due to a rule change.

Sepang looked disgusting at race end.

 

Exactly.
Pirelli has been asked to build "crap" tires. Not exactly a brilliant marketing strategy.
However this is the meat of the Chinese tire market. Next year Hangzhou tires ?
"Guaranteed not to last". An opportunity is being lost.

Button mentioned that his tires did not get down to "the canvas".
For goodness sake these tires are getting to the cords ? No wonder the radical performance change which also explains the huge amount of marbles.

New strategy; Once the tires are down to the cords drive off line and pick up some new rubber.
Very recycle and eco friendly.

 

There is more unpredictability but I think they've gone too far the other way. Four stops every race is ridiculous and tracks like Canada and Monaco are going to be even worse.

 

There will only be one and only one line in Monaco.

 

Yeah and should you get it wrong and drift onto the marbles, as we saw today you will crash. Which is going to make overtaking still impossible.

 

I know, but that implies the team gave him a completely used set for that last stint which seems unlikely. But what happened speaks for itself so maybe they were all out.