At Pirelli, it had been expected that there would be around half a second between each of the five tyre compounds – In Bahrain, however, this difference was significantly greater
Pirelli is pleased with the Formula 1 winter test in Bahrain ahead of the start of the 2022 season. “We didn’t see any graining, no blisters. We didn’t see any problems warming up even with the cooler temperatures [on Saturday]. That’s a good sign,” revealed Mario Isola.
Despite this, there were also one or two surprises for the Italians. For example, the difference between the individual compounds was “a bit bigger than expected”, reports Isola and explains: “The expectation was 0.5 seconds per lap. It’s probably more like between 0.8 and one second per lap.”
However, the figures are still to be taken with a grain of salt, as the teams kept changing their cars over the course of the tests. “Therefore, we don’t have a clean comparison between the compounds,” Isola stresses. As things stand, however, the difference from one compound to the other is very similar.
Isola currently expects two stops
So the C2 is around 0.8 to one second faster than the C1, the C3 around 0.8 to one second faster than the C2 and so on. The only exception according to Isola: “The difference between C4 and C5 is almost nothing because the C5 doesn’t work here with its real performance.”
But that doesn’t matter for next weekend’s Grand Prix because only the C1 to C3 compounds will be used there. “In general, the opinion was that the C1 could be a good compound for the race,” Isola said, because it had been “very consistent. “
“At the moment, two stops [on Sunday] would be the fastest. But we have to confirm that with the new numbers that will come in practice on Friday. So it’s difficult to make a prediction now,” said Isola, who hopes to get a clearer picture in Friday’s second practice session.
Background: Temperatures will then be similar to Sunday’s race, making FT2 much more relevant than FT1 and also much of the testing this week. However, if the figures there are confirmed, why was Pirelli so wrong with its estimate?
Why the 2021 tests were not representative
While Pirelli conducted an extensive programme to test the new 18-inch tyres last year. But Isola recalls that the cars used in the process generated their downforce very differently from the new-generation Formula One cars.
Especially in the slow corners, the new cars are slower compared to their predecessors. “It was impossible to replicate the difference between fast and slow corners,” explains Isola, who is not worried, however, given the greater difference between the tyres.
“My feeling is that the gap will get smaller as the year goes on. Because if they optimise the balance and everything, then the gap will narrow,” he explains, predicting that eventually the numbers will be “not far from the original expectation”.
“Then we are talking about 0.5 or 0.6 or 0.7 [seconds] on average. At Spa it will be more, of course, on a shorter track less. But overall, we should reach this target,” Isola is optimistic. In addition, a lot of data will be collected in the coming months.
Tyres degrade less in 2022
This will then feed into the development of the new tyres for 2023 “in case we need to change something”, said the Italian, who also revealed that at the test some teams had had greater problems with tyre degradation than others. But here, too, there is no clear picture yet.
The teams had changed their cars again and again and had also driven in different conditions. Basically, however, the tyres are degrading less this year than before, according to Isola. “We have seen that during our tests,” he says with satisfaction.
“We need some degradation to have different strategies,” Isola points out. Nevertheless, he says, the tyres have managed not to degrade quite as much this year as in the past. This was recently confirmed by world champion Max Verstappen.
They have worked together with teams and engineers so that in the end there is more than one strategy. “We gave them the numbers and said, ‘If you have these numbers, what do you do?’ And if they had different solutions, then we had the right numbers,” Isola said.
