Isola looks towards Pirelli's future: "Happy to continue and stay with F1"

FIA bidding process

Pirelli have been Formula 1's regular tyre supplier since 2011. The Italian tyre manufacturer has faced a lot of criticism over the years, but they do what F1 and the FIA ask, producing a tyre that wears down enough to allow for different strategies, to the delight of F1 and the FIA. That also seems to be F1's vision for the future.

Although the FIA have opened the bidding process, it does not look like anything will change. "We are happy with the current situation. F1 is in a very successful period, and I believe that part of this success was also because we followed their indication and we have developed a tyre at the right level of quality performance, degradation, integrity, whatever. So we are happy to continue and to stay with F1 in this journey," said Mario Isola in an exclusive interview with GPblog.

While many fans would like to see competition between two tyre suppliers, that is not an option for Pirelli. In the early 2000s, Michelin and Bridgestone were engaged in a fierce battle, which meant that tyre performance kept improving. However, more testing was also possible then. In today's era, Isola says that is no longer doable.

"This idea to have a sole supplier is common across many championships now. It's a good way to have the same product for everybody. It's a good way to reduce costs. And I believe that open competition between tyre manufacturers at the moment is not in the plan and is not the right approach. If you consider what we are doing for the show, for sustainability and for cost reduction," he added.

Pirelli want to remain linked to F1

Talks with the FIA are always going smoothly. "We have a very good relationship with the FIA, with the teams. We are part of the sporting committee, and the technical committee, and we give our opinion on that and our contribution to that. We work very well with all the teams at F1 and FIA and as well the drivers because it's important also to listen to their opinion," he continued. 

With all the criticism there is sometimes on Pirelli, one also wonders why a tyre manufacturer wants to be in F1 so badly? What does it actually deliver? In that respect, Isola is very clear. "We use Formula 1 to transfer technology a lot. These cars are the fastest in the world so you can test your product in the most challenging environment and from Formula 1 we also had very good ideas for our road tyres. We have developed a virtual model of the tyre that is very accurate and we can use the same model for our consumer tyres.

"We have developed new materials, we have developed new production processes, new quality controls. There is a lot going on in Formula 1. And in terms of branding, I believe that Formula 1 brought to Pirelli a very good value for branding. Now Pirelli is associated to Formula 1, and it means that we are able to produce the tyres for the best championship in the world," the Pirelli chief concluded to GPblog.