Pirelli has revealed work on the new tyres for 2022 is almost complete, albeit still with some answers to be found.
As part of the new regulations, Formula 1 will move away from the 13-inch rims that have been used for decades to 18-inch wheels to bring the sport more in line with the car industry.
The Italian supplier has been working hard with F1 teams, conducting two-day tests after race weekends such as the latest one with AlphaTauri in Austria.
“In terms of development, we are in the process of finalising the construction and the profile,” Pirelli motorsport chief Mario Isola told Motorsport.com.
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“I would say we are at 80-90%. The construction is finalised and now we are starting a test campaign on new compounds.
“We have a new compound we are already using, a C3 level that is working quite well.
“It is the first one of the new family of compounds we want to introduce for next year, with the characteristics that are required and were agreed in the target letter with the drivers.
“Obviously, we need to validate that when we will have the final version of the cars.”
Since returning to F1 in 2011, Pirelli has been developing tyres with high degradation, but that has led to criticism over the amount of management a driver does during the race.
“It will be a different story next year when we have been requested to design the new 18-inch tyres with different characteristics – less overheating, less degradation,” Isola explained.
“We know that with the current cars that are very, very fast, even if much heavier compared to the past, you put a lot of stress on the tyres so this generates degradation. Also when you follow another car, you lose downforce and this is an additional element.
“So we are working together with the FIA and FOM in order to have a different situation for next year. I’m sure that if you don’t lose downforce when you follow another car with tyres that are designed with different characteristics, we can achieve the target.”
To test the new tyres, F1 teams have been using ‘mule cars’ which are meant to replicate the downforce levels expected from the all-new designs, however…
“That should be representative enough of the cars for next year, but we know next year’s cars will be very different,” Isola admitted.
“The other point is that something we cannot test during a tyre development session is the influence of the slipstream. We have only one car or two cars that are running on track, there is not proper traffic.
“We can assume when we are designing a new tyre to reduce overheating and also the new aero package should suffer less when they follow in the other car.
“They should keep the downforce, or lose a maximum of 10%, that is a completely different situation compared to what we have now, where they lose up to 50% of the downforce, and obviously they start sliding. But this is something we will have an answer only next year.
“We asked the teams to put a level of downforce, a minimum weight and the weight distribution that is in line with the expectation for next year,” he added.
“But we have some differences like I was talking about overheating, for example, we are using the brakes that are on the cars now, not the new system, and also without rim covers that will affect the performance and the heating of the rim.
“So there are still some question marks on next year. What we are trying to do is to have cars that are as much as possible representative of next year’s performances.”
Given the issues Pirelli has had with failures throughout their decade in F1, let’s hope that can be avoided from 2022 onwards.