Lewis Hamilton has called on Pirelli to provide Formula One with better tyres from 2022 onwards.
Pirelli has been F1’s sole tyre supplier since 2011 — a period of the sport that has been characterised by high levels of tyre degradation.
The aim has been to create races with multiple pit stops and varying strategies, but the reality has often seen drivers lapping several seconds off the pace to manage their tyres and ensure a one-stop strategy.
In theory, races with high levels of tyre degradation should create differences in performance between cars leading to overtaking, but drivers often complain that they cannot attack the car in front as they need to look after their tyres.
Following three very different races at the last three rounds, which all saw tyre behaviour — or failures — impact the result, Hamilton called on Pirelli to change its approach from 2022 onwards when F1 will introduce wide-ranging rule changes.
“Moving forward, probably not for next year, but for 2022, we need a better tyre,” he said. “A tyre that gives us more grip, better safety — a key matter there — and enables us to drive closer to other cars and give the fans better racing.
“Right now we are doing a serious amount of [tyre] management today, and I don’t think that’s what the fans want. Managing for multiple seconds behind another car, that’s not good enough.
“We want to help Pirelli to make a better tyre if they can. And that’s obviously the question.”
At the end of last year, F1 teams rejected the tyres Pirelli had developed for 2020, which were intended to work in a wider temperature window and suffer less degradation. When they were tested in Abu Dhabi after the final race of the 2019 seasons, drivers and teams complained that the lack of overall performance meant they would be a step backwards on the 2019-spec tyres, which are still in use this year.
Pirelli designs the characteristics of its tyres to a target letter from F1, which sets out performance and degradation levels aimed at creating exciting races. Hamilton believes part of F1’s tyre problem is rooted in the target letter, and hopes F1 and Pirelli will listen to the drivers on how to change the tyres for 2022.
“I think moving forward we really need to put a lot of pressure on Pirelli for the future,” he added. “Unfortunately, they didn’t do a great job at the end of last year to develop the 2020 tyre, so unfortunately we had to carry this tyre, the same as 2019, over into this season.
“When they made the target letter in the past, the drivers were not a part of that discussion. So that’s why I went to the meeting in Paris [last year] as a representative for the drivers, because we want to make sure they set the target letter correctly, because it’s not been done right for a long time.”