© Steve Etherington for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd.
Lewis Hamilton says pressure needs to be put on Pirelli to produce better tyres from 2022 onwards, as tyre management prevents good racing.
It was made obvious in the first half of the 2020 season that F1 drivers need to do a lot of tyre management during races to prevent degradation, which seriously impairs their ability to attack and overtake.
Italian tyre manufacturer Pirelli has been Formula 1’s sole tyre supplier from 2011 and Hamilton calls on them to do better in the future.
“Moving forward, probably not for next year, but for 2022, we need a better tyre,” said Hamilton.
“A tyre that gives us more grip, better safety — a key matter there — and enables us to drive closer to other cars and give the fans better racing.
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“Right now we are doing a serious amount of [tyre] management today, and I don’t think that’s what the fans want. Managing for multiple seconds behind another car, that’s not good enough.
“We want to help Pirelli to make a better tyre if they can. And that’s obviously the question. I think moving forward we really need to put a lot of pressure on Pirelli for the future.
“Unfortunately, they didn’t do a great job at the end of last year to develop the 2020 tyre, so unfortunately we had to carry this tyre, the same as 2019, over into this season.
“When they made the target letter in the past, the drivers were not a part of that discussion. So that’s why I went to the meeting in Paris [last year] as a representative for the drivers, because we want to make sure they set the target letter correctly, because it’s not been done right for a long time.”
Source: ESPN
