Christian Horner fears that Formula 1 costs could rise if Pirelli's intention to ban tyre blankets for 2024 is voted through. The tyre supplier is currently testing 2024-spec tyres with a view to banning tyre blankets from next season, in a bid for an easy win in F1's sustainability push. In the final moments before the race start, the surge in power demand is at its highest as tyres are heated but Pirelli feel energy savings can be made, and so have been developing rubber which does not requires the tyre blankets. The likes of George Russell and Charles Leclerc recently tested the new rubber after the Spanish Grand Prix, with Horner's Red Bull set to have their turn after the British GP. After this post-Silverstone test, a vote will be held on whether to ban blankets, with the FIA, F1 and five of the 10 teams required, although it is widely expected that the motion will fail.
Horner's fear
Some drivers, such as Lewis Hamilton have called the potential banning "dangerous" while Max Verstappen claimed there would be "a lot of crashes." Fernando Alonso also highlighted the fact that tyre warm-up would be considerably easier at some circuits which puts high energy through the tyres, but it would be a struggle at street circuits, such as Monaco. While Horner says no judgement will be made until Red Bull - and Daniel Ricciardo - have tested the new rubber, he did raise a fear of inadvertently raising costs. "We'll reserve judgement until we've done a test, Daniel is going to drive the car and we'll get the feedback from that running," Horner told media including RacingNews365. "Then I am sure Pirelli will make the right decision, I don't think it is what the drivers want. "But my fear with these things is that when you think you're going to achieve something simplistically and create better racing, there will be a whole lot of effort going into trying to heat the tyres very quickly on out-laps. "That could drive a lot more cost. "Everybody has tyre blankets, they do the job and what we should be looking at is sustainable ways of powering those tyre blankets instead of removing them."
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