Pirelli chief explains to Vettel that there is nothing wrong with rain tire
After the rain race in Monaco, Aston Martin driver Sebastian Vettel sounded very critical of Pirelli's rain tires. The German called the tires too hard for the track. Pirelli chief Mario Isola contradicted the four-time world champion.
Vettel grabbed the last point to be had in Monaco. The German finished eleventh but got away with the last point because of Esteban Ocon's time penalty. The race in Monaco was started on the blue rain tire, which Vettel criticized a lot. The rain tire was said to be too hard for the track and he called the tire "basically just worthless.
Isola contradicts Vettel
The rubber that Vettel is so critical of comes from Pirelli. The head of the tire manufacturer's sports section, Isola, contradicted the F1 driver and explained to Motorsport-magazin.com what was possibly going on: "The blue tire is different from the Intermediate, but it is not much harder. The tests we did showed that the tires have the same characteristics as last year's. We also tried to keep the 'crossover moment' of the tires the same as last year."
By the 'crossover moment' the Italian means the transition from the Full Wet to the Intermediate. According to Isola, it is due to Monaco that the crossover time was somewhat different than at other circuits. According to the Pirelli chief, it is not due to a faulty tire or the temperatures. Isola comes up with the simple explanation, "It's mainly because of the asphalt. This is a real street circuit with street asphalt. It is therefore much less rough than asphalt on a race track. Therefore, less grip can be generated by the tires."
So, he admits that there is less grip at Monaco due to paving surface, and that the rain tires are "not that much" harder than the Intermediates. This would create a tire with low grip at Monaco, which is exactly what Vettel stated -that the tires were too hard for Monaco, thus useless. It seems that Vettel was suggesting that perhaps Pirelli should consider a grippier (read softer) rain tire for Monaco, and by inference other street courses, to make them more useful... in the rain. It could be that what worked on the 13 rim apparently does not work on the new rim size, but that point was obviously lost on the Pirelli engineer - who was apparently tasked with deflecting from from Pirelli. Pretty much how they roll... pun intended.
Vettel is one of the worst drivers on the grid I wouldn't pay him any attention. Go tell him to pick up some plastic bottles.
Nothing is ever Pirellis fault - tires blowing up, hard tyres and every race, terrible wet tires, nope - never their fault.
That is what happens when only one manufacturer has monopoly on the tyres with absolutely no competition from any others. They can say and do what they like, as there is no other choice available. The FIA should bring in at lease another one more manufacturer to keep each other on their toes to keep improving in order to give the edge to their customers ... otherwise the teams will just buy from the other competitor. Almost all counties have an 'anti monopoly clause' in business dealings. Why isn't there one in F1?
Except that it’s not a monopoly. If F1 isn’t happy with it’s selected tyre supplier, it can go out to tender and select another one from the interested bidders.
But why not have two teams so that they can literally ‘fight it out’ on the track to attract teams to go with them?
That approach ended at Indianapolis in the Bridgestone vs. Michelin debacle that resulted in a severely reduced grid, due to Michelin's withdrawal of its tires supplied due to concerns over safety, nit shared by Bridgestone. The single supplier contract followed shortly after. There were also rumors of Bridgestone designing tires specifically to suit Ferrari that gave Schumacher an unfair advantage. Little chance that there will be a return to multiple suppliers again.
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