In an recent interview with racingnews365.com, the F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali said the believes that the recent criticism directed at Pirelli is not justified and the company did not deserve this due to the enormous engineering challenges they are facing. Lets recap - the recent criticism directed at the tyre manufacturer came to be after the “mysterious” blowouts during the Azerbaijan GP, that caused the race leader Max Verstappen as well as Lance Stroll to retire from the race.

This incident caused a lot of backlash, especially after Pirelli suggested that after the conclusion of their “investigation” it seemed that the teams were running the tyres at slightly different parameters than recommended - a claim that the teams disputed right away. Domenicali has defended the company, as he believes they deserve more respect for their work. 

As he said in the interview: "I think the most important thing is that we are especially grateful for what Pirelli is doing. Sometimes we get into a situation where we criticise a certain party without realising that that party is an important partner for Formula 1. The technical challenges Pirelli faces are enormous. After all, there are no other cars in the world with the same performance, so we have to have a lot of respect for what Pirelli is doing.”

The F1 CEO acknowledged the need for more safe compounds, with Pirelli responding to the failures and introducing new construction rear tyre that will be used from the British GP onwards. 

As Domenicali said: "The tyre must also be able to put on a show. And because Pirelli is the only manufacturer, the teams can ask for,for example, super soft tyres that only last ten laps, or tyres that last a little longer, with which one can devise several strategies. It is a very difficult issue for Pirelli.”

"The tyre is the connecting factor between the car and the asphalt and the way the car sits on the asphalt is also affecting the behaviour of the tyres. The cars keeps getting better and better and better. And I don't want to act as a representative of Pirelli but, if you look at how often Pirelli can test with new cars, you have to conclude it's not easy for them. People underestimate the performance levels of this car and maybe it would be good for Pirelli if the teams made themselves available to Pirelli more often.”