Source: Pirelli Media

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Pirelli casts doubt over two-stop races making F1 more entertaining

Pirelli casts doubt over two-stop races making F1 more entertaining

16-08-2018 14:15
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Jake Williams-Smith

Pirelli has weighed in on the debate as to whether or not Formula One should make two pit stops during a race a mandatory rule in the chase to make races more entertaining. Pirelli director Mario Isola doubts that such a change would have the intended impact on the sport.

Pirelli has received widespread backlash from fans and teams since their return to the sport in 2011, with their mandate to make tyres that degrade criticised for making the racing artificial. This year, the one-stop strategy has been the route most teams have chosen, this is despite Pirelli making each of their tyre compounds a step softer in 2018.

Under the current regulations, drivers are required to make one pitstop and use a minimum of two tyre compounds during a race. Isola admitted that talks had been taking place and included the possibility of making two-stop races mandatory.

“There are discussions on how to design a better regulation, of course, but this is something that happens every year.”

And also the possibility to have mandatory two-stops. But we need to pay attention because if you have a in the rules that you have a two mandatory stops there is a high risk to have all the cars stopping in the same lap, because your other constraints means that basically you define the strategy.

“If you say you have to use the three compounds, that means you have to stop twice, everybody will stop at the same time. It’s not really something that is generating more strategies or different approaches.

“The more you add constraints you probably (start to) have the same strategies.”