Drivers joined by F1 chiefs at extraordinary GPDA meeting

The GPDA held a meeting on F1's future on Friday at Interlagos, and the drivers were exceptionally joined by representatives of the Formula One Group, the FIA and Pirelli.

The GPDA's agenda was mainly centered around drivers' concerns over tyres and tyre management, an issue which they believe is negatively impacting the racing.

However, the scope of the meeting also included a broader set of topics, with F1 sporting manager Ross Brawn, F1 race director Charlie Whiting and Pirelli's Mario Isola all in attendance to listen to the group's grievances and suggestions.

"It was interesting and pretty long," said Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly, quoted by Motorsport.com. "We talked about a lot of things.

"At the moment we’re trying to find the best directions to take for the future of Formula 1, and they [Formula 1 Group and the FIA] are listening to the drivers’ point of view, which I think is really important.

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"Teams always try to get advantages with their strength and try to lead the FIA in certain ways. Us as drivers are maybe more objective, and are just saying about what they would like from the cars to make it even more enjoyable.

"We didn’t all agree, but we all shared more or less our views on what we need to improve - to be able to follow closer, all these kind of things we can improve to make the show better.

"We talked about tyres, and he [Isola] wanted to explain their [Pirelli’s] position, and to try to figure out the direction they should take in the future."

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While Pirelli's compounds for 2019 are set in stone, Mario Isola was still attentive to the drivers' comments, insisting that teams could exert a bigger influence in terms of tyre selection at specific races.

"It is true we have developed our products [for 2019], we cannot change it now," said Isola.

"But we can make a different selection, have a different approach, so it is important to understand from the drivers how are their expectations.

"We want to reduce the number of the homologated compounds but have the right delta between compounds, and we are improving the wear profile to have less blistering – that is something we have experienced this year in some races.

"It’s important to listen to their [the drivers’] opinion. They drive the car so at the end of the day we should listen to them."

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