F1 | Will the teams be able to handle 2021 tyres?
Laurent Mekies, Ferrari sporting director, believes that Formula 1 teams need to work hard to be able to control the new tyre compounds proposed for the 2021 season.
Pirelli has developed new tyre prototypes after there have been several tyre blow-out during the 2020 season. Furthermore, the Italian tyre brand had already planned to stay on the same tyres for the third consecutive year.
The new compounds that Pirelli proposed in Bahrain, more robust but a little slower, were discarded by drivers like Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton because they preferred to stick with the current compounds.
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff pushed the drivers to welcome Pirelli's new proposals because, according to him, the new compounds can help cope with the downforce demands and prevent other failures from occurring.
Another in favor of Wolff's views is Ferrari sporting director Laurent Mekies who agreed that F1 teams shouldn't worry about tyre strength.
Mekies affirmed: "We know this tyre is done for better safety, the prototype tyre, so that's the way it is,
"We all want safety, we all want to push as hard as we can without having to be concerned about the tyre safety and I think that's what Pirelli has done.
"So yes, it comes with less grip, we don't like less grip, but if it's the price one has to pay to get it, then I'm sure it's fine.
"Now the tricky bit with these tyres is that yes, they have less grip but they also come with balance shifts through the corners and it's probably going to mean quite a bit of head scratching over the winter to see how best to go about it."
Furthermore, the drivers claim that the new compounds proposed by Pirelli in Bahrain causes understeer and also do not seem to have solved the overheating problems.
So, we can say that the adjustment of the car to the tyres for 2021 could be a key factor in being able to start next season in front of everyone.
"It's not just less grip, its characteristics are quite different," Mekies added.
"And how to best support our drivers in dealing with that is going to be a topic, which I guess is good for the short run next year, in a way that there will be a new parameter in the equation of the ranking next year."
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