Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsFerrari

Arrivabene dreams of free tyre choice

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Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene admits he "dreaming" of a potential regulation change which would allow teams to select their own tyre compounds.

The Strategy Group announced it would introduce a new rule allowing teams to select any two compounds from the four in the Pirelli range for each race. While Pirelli dismissed the idea as unrealistic, a compromise solution is close to being reached for 2016 which would add an extra variable at each circuit.

Following Ferrari's victory at the Hungarian Grand Prix, Arrivabene says he expects his team's form to continue to fluctuate depending on each circuit, but he is excited by the prospect of being able to select tyre compounds more suitable to the car in future.

"Even the best team, the team that is at the top, sometimes they have a fail and then they go up again, but it doesn’t mean they are stepping back," Arrivabene said. "That means we have to wait for different tracks and different tyres.

"For example, talking about tyres I am dreaming for the day we can make our own choice about tyres, then Formula One is going to be a bit more interesting."

And Arrivabene says Ferrari's ability to challenge Mercedes at certain circuits is vindication of its approach following a disappointing 2014 season.

Asked how big the gap to Mercedes is, Arrivabene replied: "At the beginning of the season it was quite big and we were nearly able to catch up. Then we continued our development, but they also developed their car and then flew away again.

"I think the story of this season is going to be just that, they are the strongest team and I recognise that. Sometimes we are able to catch them up or to win races like [Hungary] and in Malaysia and sometimes they fly away. This is the story of this year and that is telling to us that we are going in the right direction."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.