Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsPirelli

Pirelli can deliver lap time gain of up to 3s in 2017

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Pirelli can deliver a gain in lap time of up to three seconds per lap under the proposed 2017 regulations, according to Paul Hembery.

New regulations are set to be introduced for 2017 onwards designed to reduce lap times by up to five seconds and make cars look more aggressive. With Pirelli having been selected as F1’s tyre supplier until 2019, it will deliver wider tyres as part of the change and Hembery says the tyre manufacturer is likely to be responsible for around 50% of the improvement in lap times.

“Well it's certainly looking like wider tyres,” Hembery said. “The actual precise dimension has changed a little bit. We're talking though of a 300mm-width front and a 400mm rear and that's staying with 13 inch rims. There's a simulation where we've now got to provide some data on what that will provide in terms of grip model for the teams so they can work out how much performance they can get from the tyre.

“It's probably two, maybe three seconds from the tyre, and then based on that they'll modify the aero regs and maybe some engine regs, I don't know, to obtain the five seconds that we're trying to achieve.”

And while the increase in tyre size helps, Hembery says Pirelli knows how to reduce lap times even with the 2015 dimensions.

“In reality even with the current tyre you could find a performance change if you went on looking for performance. There are technologies you could apply that focus more on performance, so going to a wider tyre as well means a bigger footprint so of course so that means you get more performance.”

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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.