Ferrari 'ashamed' at vote against using 2018 tyres despite Austria action

Star InactiveStar InactiveStar InactiveStar InactiveStar Inactive
 

Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto claims he is "ashamed" Formula 1 didn't vote for bringing back last year's Pirelli tyres later this season.

On Friday, teams were split 5-5 in a meeting called by the FIA and led by the Italian team and Red Bull, falling short of the seven votes needed to pass the motion.

It follows unhappiness from several teams at the thinner-treaded product introduced by Pirelli this season, which they claim has allowed Mercedes to be so dominant.

But while the Austrian Grand Prix proved to be exciting as the German manufacturer struggled, Binotto still felt F1 had missed a chance to improve competitiveness.

“Obviously today it has been a good battle,” he told RaceFans. "Normally you’ve got good battles when you do not have a car which is over-performing, so this weekend has been great in that respect.

“[But] I think we missed a great opportunity this weekend on the tyres decision. I think the entire F1, we should have done something.

“Sometimes we are discussing a lot and we are not acting.

“So I still feel really ashamed that we didn’t change the specification of tyres for the rest of the season because that would have been a great opportunity to somehow try to close the field.”

Speaking over the weekend, eventual race winner Max Verstappen also spoke of the impact the current tyres are having on the racing.

"If you are really close to someone for two or three laps, they overheat too much and you start sliding too much, so most of the time you just back out because if you stay there, you have to pit earlier and stuff. So then it compromises your whole race," he explained.

"It’s a combination of both the car, where we need to find a different way of creating the downforce, and then the tyres, I think we can do a better job on that."

Also Read:

McLaren boss Andreas Seidl had a different view, however, believing the action in Austria proves F1 shouldn't be flippant with changes.

“It was a fantastic race to watch for Formula 1 fans today which I think was really necessary after all the discussions we had in the last weeks,” he declared.

“I think it also confirms that we need to be very careful in the short term measures or actions in trying to fix something.

“As I said in the press conference on Friday we have an issue which is a lot bigger which is the speed gap between the top teams and the midfield teams.

“That is something we need to focus on to get that right for ’21 and to not soften these proposals which on the table now again in the next three months because of various conflicting inputs from the different teams with their own agendas.”

 

         

 

 

Search