Is Pirelli killing real racing?

The official tyre supplier to the F1 circus, Pirelli has seen its share of criticism in recent weeks. Tyres are a very important part of each F1 car. The tyres are the sole connection that a car has with the circuit, and the tyres decide whether a car can translate any innate potential it possesses into a grand prix victory. But whether a tyre is degrading enough is a very sticky question indeed.

Let us take a brief look at how the degrading tyres manufactured by Pirelli came into the picture.

Towards the end of the Bridgestone Era, the tyres seemed to made of granite. There was hardly any degradation and the races became entirely too predictable. In the 2010 Monaco Grand Prix, Fernando Alonso completed all laps except for one on the same set of tyres. The usual scenario was that, during the race, the cars would bolt on options during the first stint, which usually was about 15-20 laps, and then change to the prime tyres which ran till the end of the race.

Then came the 2012 Canadian Grand Prix. Due to a mixture of weather conditions and the choice of tyres by Bridgestone, the race was an action packed affair. It was the first race in a long time in which strategy played an important part. After Bridgestone’s exit at the end of the 2012 season, Pirelli stepped in as the official tyre supplier to the F1 teams. When it came in, it received the request to make the tyres more degrading to increase the number of pit stops, and as a consequence, make racing a little more exciting. Pirelli raised its game after receiving the request and produced tyres that degraded rapidly.

Now, to come back to the original question, are the tyres that Pirelli supplying killing off real racing? Has F1 changed from the pinnacle of motorsports , known for wheel to wheel flat out racing, to a tyre endurance championship? And if yes, then what can be done?

It cannot be denied that since the arrival of Pirelli, tyres are suddenly being viewed through a strategical point of view. This can often be seen during the last part of Qualifying, Q3. Many teams do not run in Q3 or don’t complete flying laps in an effort to save their tyres. The loophole which allows teams to start on the tyres of their choice if they don’t complete a flying lap in Q3 does not help either. Also, the essence of F1 is being tampered. Also in the race, instead of racing at full throttle, most of the drivers these days need to nurse their tyres. This, in turn, is causing F1 to turn into some sort of a tyre endurance championship in which the car that nurses its tyres best wins which is an insult to the spirit of F1 in particular and motorsport in general.

The path to its remedy is not so clear. This would require a new outlook on the part of Bernie as well a spate of rule changes. First and foremost, the qualifying loophole must be fixed. Cars that don’t set a time shouldn’t be allowed a choice of tyres. Also, instead of punishing the cars that make Q3, they should be provided with an extra set of tyres so that different teams are enticed by the opportunity. Another thing that can be done is to give the teams three choices of tyres for each race weekend and let them use whichever two compounds they want. The different mix of compounds will make sure that the racing remains exciting due to the variable degradation while allowing teams to chose the tyres best suited according to their strategy as well as car.

There is no clear answer to this very sticky question and the different scenarios can be argued till the end of time. But, ultimately, it comes down to the small question of whether you want to watch high adrenaline wheel to wheel racing or whether you get a high by seeing an exciting race with overtakes, albeit a tyre endurance race.