Pirelli open to soft-tyre-only F1 Monaco GP, however sceptical

A scarcity of motion and overtaking in final weekend’s Monte Carlo race, the place the highest ten drivers completed in the identical place they began, has triggered requires potential rule adjustments to assist spice it up.

Maybe probably the most smart thought has come from Mercedes driver George Russell, who reckoned that bringing solely mushy tyres to Monaco – relatively than the standard three completely different compounds – would serve so as to add some jeopardy.

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Pirelli’s head of automobile racing and F1 Mario Isola stated he can be joyful to get groups to supply some simulation information on how such a soft-tyre-only race would play out, however he isn’t satisfied it is going to change issues dramatically as it is going to drive even larger tyre conservation.

“I’ve heard the proposal and I spoke to George truly, who instructed me about it,” stated Isola. “I consider that we are able to ask the groups to make a simulation and see what occurs.

“However in 2018 after they had been operating softer tyres, if I keep in mind properly, they had been operating eight seconds slower than the potential of the tyres – which was F2 tempo.”

Isola stated that delivering softer tyres for Monaco wouldn’t essentially drive further pitstops and as an alternative would seemingly simply make drivers again off much more to maintain their rubber alive.

“The issue in Monaco is that you just can not overtake, so you possibly can decelerate by 2/3/4 seconds per lap and no person can get previous you,” he famous.

“What’s necessary, in my view, is that we have now to think about not simply the tyres, however why a workforce decides to cease or not.

“It’s a mixture of tyre degradation, how simple it’s to overhaul and the time you spend in a pit cease. Imola is an effective instance, as a result of should you take 28 seconds for an extra pit cease, you attempt to not take it.”

Isola stated recommendations of mandating a minimal variety of pitstops would additionally not deliver any added worth, as a result of groups would seemingly then lock into the identical methods.

“I keep in mind that a few years in the past, when there was this proposal [to force two stops], we had the dialogue and the groups requested their technique engineers to make a simulation,” he defined.

“The outcome was that everybody got here again with kind of the identical technique. So by including constraints, we aren’t pushing them to have completely different methods or completely different approaches to the race, however simply to converge to the identical one. And this isn’t what we wish.

“What we wish is to have a mixture of one cease and two stops, with completely different compounds used.

“To repair the problem we have to work collectively to take a seat down, contemplate all of the proposals, make a simulation, and perceive which is the perfect method.”

Requested what he reckoned the perfect resolution can be for Monaco, Isola stated: “A wider circuit – however you can’t destroy buildings in Monaco.

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Mario Isola, Racing Supervisor, Pirelli Motorsport, on the grid

Picture by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

“It’s a distinctive race the place mainly the whole lot is set on Saturday with qualifying, except there’s something unpredictable or unusual.

“However for the remainder of the road circuits, if we go softer, perhaps we are able to change slightly bit the method and open a two-stop technique the place we have now one.

“I am eager about the opposite road circuits like Miami and Las Vegas, the brand new ones. That’s attainable. However for Monaco, to be sincere, I consider that there’s little or no we are able to do.”

Isola added that Pirelli had now all however signed off on the development of subsequent yr’s new slick tyres, that are geared toward lowering overheating, following a take a look at at Paul Ricard this week.

There may even be an additional softer compound added to the choice, which can be aimed particularly for road circuits.

“The concept can also be to introduce a brand new C6 compound, a softer one, as a result of within the calendar we have now increasingly more road circuits and we want softer compounds,” he revealed.

“We’re going to transfer the vary slightly bit on the mushy facet, and all the time attempting to scale back the overheating.”