Pirelli motorsport boss Mario Isola says he accepts the criticism expressed by F1's drivers on its tyres but insists it's not always easy "to make them happy".
Pirelli has introduced at Silverstone this weekend a new slick tyre construction across all of its compounds to help its product cope with the rise in aero loads generated by this year's ground-effect cars.
After Friday's running, the consensus among the drivers was that the new tyre construction offered less grip, although it was agreed that the higher pressures used at Silverstone may have also been a contributing factor.
Isola is all ears when it comes to the feedback provided by F1's drivers on Pirelli's tyres, and he readily accepts the criticism.
But sometimes he feels that it's "easy" for drivers to point the finger at Pirelli, while it's not so easy to please the group.
"I believe that it's quite normal when you are the sole supplier to get some criticism," Isola said at Silverstone on Friday. "What I always say is that if the criticism is good, or to improve, it's always more than welcome.
"I understand that drivers sometimes are not happy about the performance or the behaviour of the tyre.
"But sometimes also, there are some strange situations. For example, last year we had the first year with the new cars and the new 18-inch wheels and I remember that all the drivers were happy.
"They said, 'Finally, we don't have overheating, we can attack'. We had a lot of races with a lot of action on track.
"This year, they come back criticising the overheating. We have the same tyres as last year. So I guess how it is possible that there is something else?
"We are trying to do our best. Criticising the tyre sometimes, it's easy.
"But I listen to the drivers because they are the heroes of our sport, and they must be happy. But it's not always easy to make them happy."
Isola pointed out that Pirelli often faces limitations due to the necessity to focus on a specific aspect of tyre development, whether it be degradation, overheating or reaching the intended performance benchmarks.
"We can improve, obviously, but we have some constraint," he explained. "We have to develop a tyre now that is able to work without blankets [for 2024, subject to approval]. So, we are focused on that.
"If we have to work on a tyre with less overheating, it's another direction. We can do that. We are happy to do that. But we have to agree on a single direction.
"With 25 days of testing per year, we cannot do everything," Isola stressed. "So, I believe that there are many constraints that are more than understandable because we are racing for 22 races this year, 24 next year, the calendar is quite busy.
"We cannot ask the teams to do more than what they are doing at the moment, because I understand the effort they're putting in giving us the car for testing. But it's still quite limited."
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