Formula 1 motorsport director Ross Brawn feels teams put their own priorities ahead of the drivers when opting to vote against Pirelli’s 2020 tyres.
On Tuesday, all 10 outfits unanimously decided to reject the product the Italian supplier had made for next season and instead will continue with this year’s compounds.
However, Brawn claims the targets at least from a sporting perspective had been met by Pirelli with their 2020 rubber.
“The unfortunate thing was the objective for 2020 was [to have] more ability for drivers to lean on the tyres to help them in these racing situations,” he told RaceFans.
“It wasn’t to be quicker. It could have been slower: there was nothing to say they couldn’t be a bit slower than what we have now.
“But they needed to be more of what the drivers were asking for, which was a tyre they could lean on more and they drive a bit harder without losing performance and there’s certainly signs that they achieved that.
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“But what also seemed to be the case is the way they changed the construction to achieve that was having a bit of an impact on some teams’ aerodynamics,” Brawn revealed. “Therefore, because the sidewall and the distortion of the tyre was different, it was upsetting some of the cars.
“I don’t think a number of teams wanted to have to address that because it was a bit of an unintended consequence of the change of construction.
“I would have preferred to have persevered and stuck with the 2020 tyres and solved the issues because I think they did achieve the objectives. But it’s a team decision and that’s where it’s gone.”
Pirelli though is now calling for the mandatory minimum tyre pressures to be increased for next season as the best immediate solution to adapting this year’s compounds to next season’s cars.
“The 2020 cars will have more downforce. We expect the teams to find between one and 1.5 seconds,” motorsport boss Mario Isola explained.
“More downforce means a higher load on the tyre, so we have to take countermeasures.”