Q&A with Hembery on the tire situation.

Fast_ian · Jun 1, 2012

Hey,

Edited for brevity, full article linked below.

When they became Formula One racings official tyre supplier last year, Pirelli set the cat amongst the pigeons by spicing up the on-track action with their less durable compounds. A year later and the Italian manufacturer has yet again been ruffling feathers.
....

Q: Paul, since the start of the season Pirelli has been the talk of the paddock. Is that a good or a bad thing?
Paul Hembery: Well, from one point of view its good as its great that what we are doing is in discussion. Of course, on the other hand, we know our role and we dont want to be the main part of the weekend. That should be the drivers. They should be the stars in the cars. After six races some might have the view that were presenting the teams with too much of a challenge. But when you look at it from another perspective, the cars this year are so much more competitive. You see so many drivers, in so many different cars, within a few tenths of a second of each other and that has never been seen before. For sure, the relationship between car and tyres has become much more sensitive and it can mean you are penalised heavily if you get it wrong. So yes, weve been the talking point, but the fact is we feel that we didnt make huge changes compared to 2011. I think weve made some interesting changes to stimulate the engineering challenge. So far its been very interesting.

Q: Youve been criticised about the characteristics of the tyres by some big names in the paddock. How do you cope with that?
PH: At the end of the day youre giving the same product to everybody. Its the target that you learn to make the best out of what youve got. Everybody has the same challenge - and the same opportunity.
...
Q: You might be very popular with the fans, but for the teams who believe they belong at the front it is perhaps another story
PH: Well, maybe. In life thats probably tough I guess. But I believe that after 20 races the bigger teams with the bigger budgets will come through to the front. That is going to happen.
.....
Q: Do you agree that good tyre management will decide this years championship?
PH: No, because in every championship you have to maximize the package. That means maximizing the performance that you get from every component and the tyres only happen to be one of those. Of course it is also true that tyre management is crucial in every racing category that you perform in. In a few weeks from now you will see that the teams know exactly how to get the best performance out of the tyres for their needs. Its just a question of time.
...
Q: Weve had six races, and six different drivers have won. Are you proud of that?
PH: No, not really. That is down to the teams and down to the drivers. Our contribution is probably in how close the grid is.
....
Q: Pirelli have certainly spiced up the races, but is it true that whoever is quickest at driving slowly will win out?
PH: Well, you are still driving at the maximum of your package and thats still down to driver skill. If you want a philosophical change then you would open up the engine regulations and the tyre regulations and would go to the maximum. But we saw that in around 2000 and the audience didnt really appreciate it.
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Q: You said that you could imagine distributing special Q3 tyres, but werent the super-softs in Monaco already used in that way?
PH: Well, probably that was a Monaco speciality, but believe me, you could still go much more extreme. You would in fact be surprised how far you could go. But you would have to have different qualifying compounds. You wouldnt just be able to have one because of the huge diversity of the circuits that you go to. We are open to talks with the sport. If the sport feels that we need to do something about Q3 running then we will come up with something. At the moment there is maybe a difference in opinion between different groups and people, although the tactical intrigue by serving up such tyres is interesting and the viewing figures for qualifying appear to be growing in most markets. But we have to make sure that all ten cars are running. Many things are possible, from simply replacing the Q3 tyres for all the ten cars in Q3 to a bespoke product that is just for qualifying. The cheapest solution would be to give everyone who made it into Q3 a new set of tyres overnight as a replacement and therefore they are not penalized for using them, as not running would not benefit them. We are willing to discuss that to try and find a solution.
Click to expand...

A pretty fair assessment of we're at IMO.

Cheers,
Ian
The full interview; http://www.formula1.com/news/interviews/2012/5/13411.html

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Q&A with Hembery on the tire situation.

Fast_ian Two Time F1 World Champ

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Q&A with Hembery on the tire situation.

Fast_ian Two Time F1 World Champ

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