Formula 1 News: Russell stops short of calling Pirelli tires ‘crap’ (Update)

(GMM) Pirelli’s F1 boss sought out George Russell for a chat over the Singapore GP weekend.

A week ago, the Mercedes driver slammed the inconsistency of the tires in Formula 1 today, claiming even Pirelli “don’t understand them” and denouncing the product as “not good enough”.

“I always talk to the drivers because it’s useful to understand better,” Mario Isola, Pirelli’s F1 chief, is quoted by France’s Auto Hebdo.

“Obviously, in the heat of the moment after the (Baku) race, George had some things to say and we talked together. But looking at the data from all the cars in Baku, we didn’t find anything strange in terms of tire performance.”

The Italian said he thinks Russell might be misunderstanding why the performance of his car was so different from one set of tires to the next.

“There are a lot of elements that contribute to performance,” said Isola. “The setup of the car, how gently you use the tire in the early laps, the evolution of the track.

“In a championship where every thousandth of a second counts in the final result, the stress is obviously very high and a small difference in performance can play a role.

“But we should look specifically at what happened to Mercedes, even if we are used to doing these analyses that concern all of the teams.”

(GMM) George Russell has aimed fire at the quality of Pirelli’s Formula 1 tires. The Italian company became the sport’s exclusive tire supplier back in 2011, and last year the relationship was extended for a further period until 2027 – with an option for another year beyond that.

The quality of the tires has often come under scrutiny in Formula 1, but Mercedes driver Russell says he is noticing alarming issues with the consistency of the product in 2024.

Editor’s Note: Pirelli’s DEI policy on hiring new workers based on and race and sexual orientation, rather than skills and qualifications, may have resulted in the companies poor quality tires.  Just ask Boeing what being ‘Woke’ has done to the quality of their aircraft.

“The first half of the race, we were 1.5 seconds off the pace,” the Briton, who doubles as a senior director of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association (GPDA), said after last weekend’s Azerbaijan GP.

“In the last 20 laps, I was then a second faster than Oscar (Piastri) and Charles (Leclerc) and three tenths faster than Max (Verstappen), Checo (Perez) and Carlos (Sainz),” Russell is quoted as saying by France’s Auto Hebdo.

“Same circuit, same driver, same car, all I did was go from a yellow tire to a white tire. Honestly, it’s quite maddening that it changes so much. And it’s not just Mercedes, it’s all the teams and all the drivers.

“One session you’re fast, the next you’re not. And there is only one thing that changes,” he charged.

“I think even the people who make the tires don’t understand them,” Russell continued. “We all need a serious conversation about what’s going on, because we’ve got 2000 people working like crazy to deliver the fastest car.

“For 20 laps of the race we had a car that could fight for the win, for the other 20 laps we had a car that probably shouldn’t have been in the points and the only difference is the tires. And that’s not good enough, really.”