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Pirelli causes irritation in the paddock: Yet a new tyre for 2021

Pirelli causes irritation in the paddock: Yet a new tyre for 2021

27-11-2020 10:20 Last update: 12:01

GPblog.com

Pirelli are currently not making friends with the engineers in Formula 1. After the aerodynamic rules were changed because Pirelli could not design new tyres for 2021, the Italian tire supplier is now suddenly coming up with a new tyre.

Because the amendments to the regulations were postponed from 2021 to 2022, Pirelli rang the bell. According to the Italian tire supplier, something had to be done aerodynamically to ensure that Pirelli's tyres could still cope with the pressure in 2021. Pirelli's tyres were not made for another year of development by the teams.

Pirelli opts for a new tyre anyway

Formula 1, therefore, decided to stop the development of the current cars towards 2021 and only offer a few tokens to the teams. In addition, the whole floor needs to be simplified, so that the cars will not be driven even faster during the season than is already the case this season.

Several engineers expressed their concerns as to whether this would be enough, but F1 held up. Pirelli, however, began to have doubts and is now coming up with a new tyre for 2021. However, according to Auto, Motor und Sport, this is a big surprise for the teams, who were not at all prepared for this new tire.

Pirelli nightmare for engineers

In Bahrain and Abu Dhabi, the teams are now obliged to test with this new tire, but the teams will want to focus on qualifying and racing. The fact that this plan is now being reversed last-minute is therefore a nightmare for the engineers. Firstly for this weekend, but all the way to 2021.

For 2021, the designs have already been made and the plan is already ready. Now that new tyres are changing, the teams suddenly have to go back to the drawing board, but they have hardly any data. Pirelli does have a prototype tyre for 2021, but not yet the final version.