Pirelli boss says 'it's not unrealistic' for a special Monaco tyre

With the last edition of the Monaco Grand Prix going down in the books as the most boring Formula 1 race of the season so far, there is a lot of talk about possible solutions. One of them is a special tyre compound, which Pirelli would have to supply. Pirelli boss Mario Isola says that in principle that solution should be possible, but that it is difficult to make a reality.

"It is not unrealistic," Isola spoke to Racer.com about the possibility of developing a special tyre compound. "The only problem is to find a track that is similar to Monaco for testing, because to validate our compounds we always test them on different-severity circuits and obviously Monaco is so unique that we don’t have any other circuit that is comparable."

Isola argues that Monte Carlo cannot be asked to close the roads so Pirelli can test on the street circuit. “It’s impossible to test here and it’s very difficult to find something that is representative of Monaco,” the Italian explained. Moreover, Isola does not think a special compound would make a big difference, as teams would still drive slowly to conserve tyres since overtaking is virtually impossible.

“We know from experience that in this case, teams are just managing the pace to extend the run and reduce the number of pit stops. Or you have to oblige them to make a higher number of pit stops but I believe the result could be that they’re going to stop on the same lap and it not really making a difference.” Isola concludes.