Pirelli cautious on 2018 tyre evolution

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Tyre manufacturers Pirelli says that it is against making radical changes to its Formula 1 compounds for 2018.

The company struggled to develop new tyres for the 2017 season after changes to the aerodynamic regulations. It was frustrated by a lack of track time available to assist development. This year's tyres have been criticised for erring on the side of caution and being too hard and durable.

"At most of the tracks we could do the whole race distance on one set of tyres," admitted Pirelli's motorsports director Paul Hembery. "So track position, safety car eventuality and the layout of the track will open up opportunities for the teams."

Hembery says that teams have "a long list" of changes they would like to see to next year's tyres, but that Pirelli isn't rushing into anything at this stage.

"We have to be careful with the performance of the cars, where they are going," he told the Formula 1 website this week.

"If we make too radical changes - to go to maybe more aggressive compounds, which is actually what they want as the cars are working with the tyres very well - it might get tricky.

"Right now all the teams have a very balanced wear. We have no blistering, graining is no issue. So we are in a good place.

Pirelli surprised in 2017 by 'strange strategies'

"We always start off with the fact that whoever wins has the same tyres as the driver coming in last," he continued.

"If you haven’t won a race you could eliminate tyres from your equation, because all the tyres are the same. So it is all up to the teams.

"Sure, there are situations where one team got it ‘more right’ than the others in terms of how to get better performance from the tyres. But that is part of the sport.

"We have to be careful about making changes for the sake of changes," Hembery insisted. "Just remember how it was when the new engines where introduced. A few people were leading and the rest lagged behind. Now we have two teams who are very close together.

"We have an interesting championship," he said. "It hasn’t been as clear cut who would be the leading team. Maybe the gap between all the teams is a bit large – between the frontrunners and the rest – but that always happens if you have a significant rules change.

"What we are really working on is the rain tyres," he added. "There we need the warm-up improved. We are testing continuously on the rain tyres."

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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.