Formula 1 News: Series hopes for more robust Pirelli tires

(GMM) Hopes are high that Pirelli can help make Formula 1 a better spectacle amid the current regulations’ era with tires that don’t degrade fast.

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff admits that the fate of the 2024 season in large part depends on whether next year’s tires are more suitable for the current ground effect cars.

“We have to wait and see what happens in Bahrain next year and how the season will go,” he said. “Let’s see how the Pirelli tires behave on next year’s cars.”

It is believed part of the reason for F1 abandoning the ban on tire-warming blankets for now is so that Pirelli can focus on producing more suitable tires.

“We are currently measuring the highest stress on the Pirelli tires that we have ever seen,” the FIA’s single-seater boss Nikolas Tombazis told the media this week.

He has already admitted that, compared to the start of the ground-effect era in 2022, overtaking became more difficult again this year.

Wolff agrees: “If you look closely, it has become more difficult to overtake again, and it is now all about managing the temperature of the tires.

“What we want to see is races like Qatar, where you can just go all out.”

It is understood that Pirelli was asked by stakeholders at the most recent F1 Commission meeting to look into developing a more robust tire that degrades less severely.