Whereas grand prix racing seems set to desert a push to scale back tyre warming temperatures for subsequent yr as a precursor to the blanket ban, there stays each intention to take away the heating aids from the beginning of 2024.
Such makes an attempt to ban tyre blankets, motivated on value and sustainability grounds, have been made up to now however every time have been ditched due to potential issues by way of security and efficiency.
Waiting for the most recent push for a tyre blanket ban, Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin thinks that F1 bosses should not enable a scenario the place tyres which might be designed to manage with out being pre-heated usually are not appropriate for the elevated downforce ranges that groups are in a position to ship.
“The game must be very cautious that the laws on blankets doesn’t get forward of the speed at which we will develop the tyres,” mentioned Shovlin. “And Pirelli’s downside is just not a static one.
“These vehicles have gotten extra downforce in a straight line than the vehicles we used to have. The high-speed hundreds are very, very excessive and the groups are continuously working so as to add efficiency. And for Pirelli to only sustain with that fixed improvement is tough.”
Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director, Mercedes AMG F1
Photograph by: FIA Pool
Shovlin believes that whereas producing a tyre that may cope with out being pre-warmed is feasible, F1 wants to make sure that doing so doesn’t come at the price of the racing.
“Pirelli most likely might give us one immediately,” added Shovlin. “However that tyre wouldn’t result in good racing. It will not enable the drivers to push as exhausting, and you’ll find yourself with very excessive tyre pressures and a big lack of grip.
“It is a case of balancing the wants of the game, together with environmental considerations which might be all being addressed. However the huge concern is ensuring that we do not find yourself with a worse sport, as a result of we have led it with the laws on what we need to obtain.”
Shovlin says the problem Pirelli faces in dealing with the intense efficiency of F1 vehicles is way from straightforward.
“I feel the problem of taking a automotive that is this quick, this highly effective, that has this a lot downforce, and making a ‘blanketless’ tyre is extremely tough,” he mentioned.
“I feel it’s totally straightforward to take a look at the Method 2 collection and say, ‘properly, they do it’, however the energies concerned are enormously greater – we’re doing round 20 seconds faster at some circuits. And that problem for Pirelli may be very, very tough. It requires numerous steps of technical improvement.”
Ferrari race director Laurent Mekies says the intentions of a tyre blanket ban are good, however accepts it’s not a simple factor to attain.
“The goal is the fitting one for the setting, to take away the blanket,” he mentioned. “I feel we simply want to present Pirelli the fitting time and the fitting likelihood, the fitting alternatives, testing alternatives, to develop the product that can meet the whole lot. As soon as we now have that, we will then transfer to the blanketless strategy.”
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