How Pirelli has made F1 spectacular again

For all the talk about DRS and KERS, the greatest single contribution to this year's spectacular Formula 1 season has come from Pirelli. Different pitstop strategies have created fascinating scenarios as races have unfolded, with passing encouraged by the fact that cars might be running on tyres of widely varying age and performance at a particular stage of the race.

Anyone who had doubts about Pirelli's ability to get the job done has been forced to admit that there has been no repeat of the erratic performance seen the last time the Italian company was involved at the top level, some 20 years ago.

The new Pirelli is a slick, professional operation, overseen by Briton Paul Hembery. He has quickly become the face and voice of the supplier, the man who deals with the teams and media and who is not shy about putting his company's point of view across. And he's as efficient at doing that as his tyres have been on track.

"It's been a fast learning curve, that's for sure," Hembery says of the first half of the season. "We've had a good mix of circuits: street circuits, very aggressive circuits like Sepang, circuits that are tough on the structure of the tyre like Istanbul, hot weather, wet weather... So I think we've had a good workout! I'll only be really happy when we finish the season in Brazil, and we can say we've done our job. But so far, so good."

Like Bridgestone in 1997 and Michelin in 2000, Pirelli arrived on the back of a carefully structured test programme. However, time constraints meant that it wasn't as thorough as the company might have liked. It did a lot of work with its 2009 Toyota - driven by Nick Heidfeld, Romain Grosjean and Pedro de la Rosa - and then last November there was one group test at Yas Marina for the existing teams before they finished building their 2011 cars.

Hembery says he's happy with the preparations Pirelli made, although he admits that the Toyota is a compromise - not least because it has a small fuel tank from the refuelling era, and thus cannot replicate 2011-style races.

Paul Hembery (l) and Mario Isola are behind Pirelli's success © sutton-images.com

"The biggest concern was not being able to test with a current car, and that remains a concern. We were unable to get enough kilometres under our belt with the current cars. And they are different to a 2009 Toyota. We can replicate as far as we can the increased downforce people have this year, but it doesn't really substitute for having the correct car. We can't replicate the fuel load, which has a big impact on the balance of the car. So we can't do a proper race simulation, which is important.

"However, I think the only thing we would have done differently was to ask for an artificial wet session. Going into the season we were confident and had done a lot of work, but I think it would have been better for the teams to have had a genuine wet session.

"Take one car each to Paul Ricard and get the circuit wet, have one day with one driver and one day with the other - that's probably the one thing I would have suggested to everybody that we should have done, to have at least given everybody that little bit of extra information and confidence. But Canada was a very stiff examination of our wet-weather tyres, and it worked very well."

Pirelli was charged with generating pitstops by the FIA - with the agreement of the teams - and that is exactly what has happened. Things perhaps got a little too marginal in Turkey, where four stops was the norm, but elsewhere it has gone to plan.

"Before Canada, which was exceptional because of the weather conditions, we averaged 2.5 pitstops per car, including Turkey. So we were actually bang on, as we said two to three. People probably don't realise that, but that is where we're at.

"In Monaco we had one, two and three-stop strategies for the first three drivers. That's what we wanted. We've managed to make some of the street circuits more interesting, which was clearly one of the big requirements. In Canada and Monaco we had two extremely exciting races."

From the outside it looks as though Pirelli got its predictions just right. However Hembery admits that some lessons were learned early on.

"If we go back to the circuits we've been to, I'm quite sure we'd change our selection, although clearly the racing has also been extremely good. I wouldn't say we've done anything dramatically wrong.

"We recognised in the tougher races earlier in the season that the hard [compound] wasn't giving a large enough difference in lap durability compared with the soft, so the hard that we introduced in Barcelona addressed that, it gave more laps. It was quite a big change for the teams, and some struggled to get the balance right and make it work, although clearly Sebastian [Vettel] and Lewis [Hamilton] were flying at the end.

Red marks means supersoft © sutton-images.com

"You could say that we could have used medium/hard earlier on in the season at races such as Sepang. It's finding that balance, and that's been difficult for us. We knew in the early races we probably weren't taking what I would describe as the ideal selection of compounds, but we wanted to give the teams some stability at the outset."

Over the past few races Pirelli and the teams have had to deal with unexpected conditions, with low temperatures and rain spoiling many sessions.

"We're a bit disappointed that we've had rain for the past three races, although it's been quite interesting as a spectacle. We'd have liked a bit more sunshine really, so that we could get a bit more work done on the tyres in really hot temperatures.

"We're more than halfway through the season and we haven't really had a seriously hot race. From that point of view, in testing last week at Monza we had mid-40C track temperature, so it was good finally to get some hot testing."

Silverstone, simply because of its high-speed nature, was one venue that Pirelli was a little wary of.

"Part of it had been resurfaced and was less abrasive than the old circuit, and obviously being cool again had a big impact on tyre performance and wear. The problem with Silverstone as we all know is it can be 15C or it can go up to 35C, there is really such a big span of temperatures. It's easy to say afterwards it was fine, but if it was 35C you might well have had a different scenario."

In Germany we saw an unexpected strategy when some drivers were able to leave their change to the prime [harder] tyres until the very last lap.

"Certainly Nurburgring was far less severe than we anticipated, so I think we'd take a more aggressive approach if we went back there again. We probably got the step too big between the two compounds there, and the soft tyre was actually lasting a long time, so that's why that strategy occurred.

"For us that was okay, that strategy only happened to one or two cars, it just adds another dimension to the race weekend. But certainly we don't want to see that become a standard feature. We'll keep our eye on that."

Monza presents a unique challenge, but having tested there a few times with the Toyota - most recently with Lucas di Grassi - Hembery is confident. In fact he's hoping to see a different strategy play out, with teams qualifying on the option and then using the prime for as much of the race as possible.

"Monza is interesting, because of the straights. That can cause a few stories. We're still pushing it, if we're there with 35C plus and the softer tyres. Hopefully the softer tyre will be the tyre the teams won't use, because it won't have the life, and you might start getting towards blisters and things. So they'll do a race on the medium compound, which is what we want to see.

"Hopefully Monza will push the soft to its limits, it will be great in qualifying and the race will be done on the medium. That for us would be excellent. I'm saying that because we tested last week and I've got an idea that that will be the way it will go. It'll be good."

Different compounds make different drivers quick at different times © LAT

There are still several potentially hot races to come, and of course one circuit that so far Pirelli has very little knowledge of.

"We obviously don't know India yet. It is not actually there at the moment, we were about to send a team out and somebody reminded us that it's still a dirt track! We want to do some surface mapping, and we're going out before Singapore now, I think."

And speaking of Singapore, that's one race Hembery is intrigued by: "The challenge there might be if we get rain, having lived there for a few years. A night race in the rain would be a very interesting dilemma. Having tested in Abu Dhabi at night under floodlights, it will be very spectacular if it happened. I wouldn't like to judge the reflections on the track surface, it's something only the drivers can tell us about."

One challenge for Pirelli is that the goalposts are constantly moving, in that the cars develop during the year, and thus the demands placed on the tyres change too.

"I think the surprise is how quickly the teams change and develop the cars. Obviously we've got some people who worked in F1 who knew the pace, but still we've been surprised. The cars are very light on the tyres now. They've changed the way they're using the tyres [since the start of the year]. Which means when we go to the harder compounds now, we're struggling to get those working. That's part of the experience.

"And what's still very surprising as well is the difference between the teams and the drivers. There are quite vast differences, and we didn't expect to see that."

Keeping all the teams happy all the time is not easy: "One of the areas that we have learned is that when you bring different compounds you have to give the teams a chance to have a balance on the car. It's the same challenge for everyone, but sometimes if you have two compounds that are slightly different they can't find a balance that makes both of them work.

"What I mean by that is sometime they may need more downforce to get a certain compound working, and less downforce on another, similar to what happened in Valencia.

"The medium compound probably needed a little bit more downforce to get it working. You do that and you can ruin the performance of the soft. You can take a pragmatic view and say it's the same for everybody, but you don't want to make their life too difficult."

Thus far there have been no unexpected dramas and everything has gone pretty much to plan.

"We've had no product issues, and that's pleasing. Obviously you do your simulation work to try to understand what loads and fatigue the tyre is going to undergo during a race, and so far I have to say that we have been in line with expectations. We were conservative, obviously, going into the season, as that is the number-one priority for a tyre maker."

Lucas di Grassi has been using an old Toyota to develop Pirelli's F1 tyres

So what of the future? Longer term there's a new rules package with less downforce and turbo engines, and Pirelli will have to adapt to that.

"We see two phases. We know we are going to have to make a big jump because the cars are going to lose quite a lot of downforce, and if we're going to maintain some reasonable lap times then we've got to do our bit to give the teams some more performance from the tyres.

"For 2012 it's the refinement of our knowledge of circuits from this year, and compounds. We're obviously looking at the qualifying system, because we're not very keen to see cars not going out in Q3. Having cars sat in the pits is clearly not good for anybody."

Hembery and Pirelli have been very active in discussions with the FIA's Sporting Working Group, trying to find ways of improving the show.

"It's a balance really, as we're here to provide what they want. All we can do is go to them with some ideas, and at the end of the day, it's their decision. We have some ideas that we'd like to explore, such as qualifying tyres. Someone suggested the other day that we should mark them purple, as in purple sectors!

"You create a show, it creates another focus on a particular tyre, and you can build a story around that, basically. It depends what they think. If they think that qualifying is sufficiently exciting at the moment, then fine. It would take a complete change, which is why I'm not very hopeful of it happening.

"We're thinking of maybe modifying the rules slightly because we're getting sets of tyres left unused, so maybe it would be better to use them on the Friday. We're observing little things that come with experience. But ultimately it's got to come from the teams."

One pressing problem for Pirelli is that while the Toyota has done a good job, it is now a little past its sell-by date. As mentioned, the fuel capacity is restrictive, and as each month passes the car has less in common with current machinery. The problem now is finding a more contemporary model - and operating it without other teams claiming that the supplier has an unfair advantage.

"I don't believe that we'll be going forward with the Toyota. We're obviously hopeful that we're going to have some in-season testing - that would certainly make a change. But we're still pushing the teams to provide us with a sensible solution.

"We had a meeting with the drivers when we were in Hungary, and they hadn't appreciated that we're limited. They said the cars have changed so much in the past few years, and we said, 'speak to your team bosses, because we've been asking and asking'. We'll probably only want to do three sessions next year - 10 days on track. It's a small programme. I'm sure we'll find a solution and common sense will prevail.

Build-up was extreme in Hungary © sutton-images.com

"But to be honest we'll move away from on-track testing to simulators, that's where we're putting a lot of effort in now. We're able to gain so much data from the racing and from the Toyota, so we've been validating our simulation models, and we've made some big steps in that area. That is the future - it's similar to what the teams are doing I guess. They don't do any on-track testing, they do it all through simulation."

One of the most fascinating aspects of the Pirelli involvement is that the company has happily created tyres that in effect wear out after a few laps. Drivers, teams and the media are constantly talking about their short life.

At first glance it's seems like a strange sort of PR message for a tyre company to be sending, and it's very brave of Pirelli to take that route, because the ever conservative Bridgestone would not have done so. Hembery doesn't see any contradictions.

"What you're forgetting is that if you make a tyre to last a whole race, it's still only 300km. I think you'd still be very disappointed if you bought a tyre that lasted 300km! I think I've seen some advertising from a competitor saying they managed to do a number of stints at Le Mans. That was 500km, which would still be disappointing if you'd bought a road tyre.

"I don't think this type of racing is what you really need to be using to convey longevity of the tyre. If a race was 50,000km long or you could use one set of tyres for a whole season, then you might have something to say!

"The main issue with motorsport is that the tyres are safe. Indianapolis 2005 is the type of situation that all tyre companies want to avoid, because that gives all tyre companies a bad name, and that was our priority.

"What we are finding is that the audience figures are growing, and we're getting a lot of recognition from the audience that we've been a big part of that. A lot of people are coming to us and thanking us for making F1 exciting, and that was the plan, I have to say. We were trying to get over that we are an emotional brand, and we can design products for whatever application."