Red Bull team principal Christian Horner believes Pirelli’s decision to widen their range of tyres and move each compound one step softer will result in “better racing” in 2018.
Last season, it was considered the Italian supplier went too conservative with their new, wider rubber after actual downforce levels predicted with the new-look cars were less than the simulation data had predicted.
As a result, the hard compound was only used once all season in Spain and the vast majority of races resembled the one-stop sprints of 2010, the last year of the Bridgestone era.
“What we saw in Abu Dhabi [during the race] wasn’t the greatest advert for F1,” Horner told Motorsport.com, with minimal degradation resulting in minimal action during the finale at Yas Marina. “OK, the track might have some issues, but one-stop races certainly don’t help.”
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Though the ability for drivers to push harder for longer has been maintained in this year’s tyre too, Pirelli has introduced a new hypersoft compound and ultimately gone more aggressive in their approach with the hope of making two-stop races the norm.
“I think that going softer into the range can only create better racing and fewer one-stop races, which are the worst scenario,” the Red Bull boss claimed.
“Both our drivers liked the softest tyre that was introduced, it seemed to be positively received,” he added referring to the pink-striped hypersoft, “although I think they’ve still got a bit of work to do to tidy things up.”
In case car development over the winter is higher than expected, Pirelli retained last year’s hard tyre as a backup and have renamed it super-hard and with the extra tyres, some have criticised the further complication of the tyre rules.
“I can understand the reaction, but what I hope it allows Pirelli to do is pick the right tyres and put the best show on each Grand Prix,” Horner responded.
“What it should allow them to do is pick the right range of tyres for each event to provide exciting races with at least two stops, and maybe even three at some.”