Efforts by Red Bull and Ferrari to reintroduce last year’s Pirelli tyres have failed after a meeting on Friday.
The Italian supplier permanently introduced a thinner-treaded design for 2019 but several teams have struggled to extract the optimum performance because of a narrow temperature window.
In addition, Red Bull questioned how Mercedes had been the only team to fully benefit from the change, altering their car concept to suit the harder tyre while also seeing an end to the blistering issues of recent years.
Despite the criticism, it was still a surprise when the FIA confirmed the topic would be discussed in Austria during first practice it was confirmed a vote on the proposal had failed.
“It was 5-5 – not the necessary 7 votes in favour of changes,” Auto Sport und Motor’s Tobias Gruener tweeted. “So the tyres will stay the same.”
Then it was revealed that Mercedes and their two teams, Williams and Racing Point, along with Renault and McLaren had been the five which ultimately blocked the move.
