Pirelli wants new F1 tyre pressure clampdown as teams use grey area

Tyre pressures have become a contentious issue in F1 recently, particularly following the rear tyre failure suffered by Sebastian Vettel's Ferrari in the 2015 Belgian Grand Prix.

Pirelli has introduced higher minimum pressure limits as the cars have got quicker, leading some drivers to complain they are too high and adversely affect performance unduly.

Romain Grosjean called the limits "ridiculous" during the recent Chinese GP.

But Pirelli suspects some teams have found ways of forcibly lowering their tyre pressures between the moment checks are made before the formation lap and the actual start of the race.

Pirelli motorsport boss Paul Hembery said live pressure data should be made available while the cars are running to prevent any discrepancies.

"The pressures we give are based on the information we have for the actual race starting pressure," Hembery said.

"The last moment we can take a pressure measurement is before the regrouping [formation] lap.

"The actual pressure used at the start of the race for the majority of teams is marginally higher than last year, so the perception is the pressures have gone up substantially; the reality is they haven't.

"What does that mean? It means some people have found a way of lowering the pressure, or maybe not having the pressure we see at the regrouping point at the start of the race.

"Some teams haven't worked out how they're doing it yet and the reality is we probably don't want people spending money trying to find that advantage.

"The correct solution is we should have a live feed of tyre pressures fed through the data systems, so we can see at any one point what the minimum running pressure is, which is what we are really interested in, to avoid this grey area.

"It's something we could introduce this year, and we believe it would be positive. It is certainly something we want to see for next year.

"Then I think it will be a little bit fairer on everybody, because some teams may not have been able to invest the money or energy into trying to find this area.

"It [live monitoring] is something that has happened in other categories of motorsport."

PLAN TO LOWER PRESSURES IN 2017

Many drivers have criticised Pirelli's current limits as too severe, and Hembery said the plan is to ease the restrictions when F1 adopts new technical regulations for next season.

"We haven't been able to develop the current tyre for more or less three years so we're arriving at a point of development saturation," Hembery added.

"The [current] tyre is oversaturated so the more you load it the less performance you are going to get.

"Working with the new tyres, the intention is to lower pressures and the optimum working pressure will be determined based on the conditions of use we see."