Pirelli won’t fight teams’ eventual rejection of 2020 tyres

Pirelli won’t fight F1’s possible rejection of its 2020 tyres if a majority of teams remain negative on its product after next week’s final test in Abu Dhabi.

Teams were given an opportunity to test Pirelli’s 2020-spec rubber in free practice at Austin earlier this month, an assessment that resulted in negative feedback from drivers who felt the tyres simply did not offer the level of grip required.

The criticism was such that teams are contemplating the prospect of ditching the tyres altogether and remaining next season with this year’s compounds.

However, teams will make a final assessment after next week’s post-season test in Abu Dhabi. If the outcome is once again negative, Pirelli will abide by F1’s desires.

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“We want to test the 2020 construction properly in Abu Dhabi,” said Mario Isola, Pirelli’s head of car racing, quoted by Motorsport.com.

“And after the test, we analyse the data, and the teams have the option to ask for a change if more than 70 per cent of the teams are of the same opinion.

“If there is this decision based on technical evidence that the 2019 tyre for any reason is working better than 2020, then we have no issues in keeping the 2019 tyre because it’s a good product.

“So there is no reason to be against this decision. But obviously, we need to understand why we needed one year of testing and then we have a different result. That’s important for the future.”

In Austin, Isola responded to the negative feedback, claiming the chilly track conditions, among other things, were far from optimal and likely weighed on the tyres’ performance.

“The test was not representative for a number of reasons,” contended Isola. “Not only the weather conditions, but also the fact that during the race weekend obviously, nobody at the time could optimise the setup of the car and the new construction is changing a little bit the balance.

“The profile of the tyre is different. So they have also to work around the aero package in order to optimise the aero package, and if you lose downforce, obviously the level of grip is lower.

“It is clear that when you have something new, it takes a bit of time to understand the tyre and to extract the maximum performance from it. This happens every year.

“Last year, teams were a bit against the new 2019 construction. But at the end of the day, it was an improvement because this year we had much less blistering, the compounds were spaced in the right way and degradation was not very high.”

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