Tyre blanket temperature may not lower in 2023 after Verstappen's criticism

Pirelli's plan to ban tyre warmers met resistance from several Formula 1 drivers, including Max Verstappen and Lando Norris. The tyre supplier seems to have taken the feedback to heart and is proposing an alternative, at least for next year.

Formula 1 wants to phase out tyre warmers. The first step for that is to bring the temperature down in 2023 and to stop using them altogether the following year. However, the plan met with criticism from the likes of Verstappen and Norris, after which Pirelli conducted an experiment in Austin.

During the experiment, the tyres were heated for two hours instead of three, to the usual seventy degrees. The plan for 2023 was to heat the tyres for three hours to fifty degrees instead of seventy, but the tyre supplier may have found a better plan due to the experiment.

Pirelli boss Mario Isola reveals to Motorsport.com that it takes less energy to heat the tyres to seventy degrees for two hours instead of three hours to fifty degrees, so in that aspect too it seems a better alternative. The tyre supplier, therefore, plans to submit the new plan to the FIA.

Verstappen and Norris expressed dissatisfaction with the plan to ban tyre warmers. Moreover, Verstappen predicted that banning tyre warmers would drastically increase the number of crashes. So Pirelli has since come up with a possible alternative for next year, but the plan is still to stop using tyre warmers from 2024.