Pirelli targets new tyre design to help improve racing

Pirelli has begun an investigation into developing a new tyre concept for 2025 which aims to reduce the amount of degradation throughout a stint.

Drivers have complained about how easy it is to overheat tyres while following another car, due to the amount of downforce that can be generated by the current generation ground effect cars.

Teams have developed at a higher rate than expected, which forced Pirelli to introduce a reinforced structure midway through this season on safety grounds.

There are concerns that the increased overheating is leading to worse racing on track, but Pirelli Head of Motorsport Mario Isola believes there is no easy solution to the problem.

"Without high degradation, there is no reason to target two stop races," Isola told media, including RacingNews365.

"I believe that most of the action on track was due to tyre degradation and how you are able to manage tyre degradation.

"If you reduce that, and we are going to run a specific analysis on that in the next weeks, I am convinced that the risk is to have a train of cars.

"[But] I understand that drivers who are complaining about high tyre degradation [are doing] because they would like to push more."

Isola to work with F1 on simulation tools

Pirelli wants to cure the overheating problems by investigating a new tyre concept, where drivers can push while also still enabling varied pit stop strategies.

"We want to understand is how we modify the action on track and reduce the degradation," he added.

"This is something we can do, we have just to design a tyre with a different level of degradation.

Isola says Pirelli plans to work with F1 to investigate this concept, as their own simulation tools only predict strategy and not another key element.

"We have a simulation tool. That that is the tool we use for when we publish the strategies and that is based on averages," explained Isola.

"We don't consider a specific team, but we can consider average number. Our tool is not considering the traffic, that is an important element."

While the construction for the 2024 tyres has already been finalised, it is expected that any changes would not make their way to the track until 2025 at the latest.

"It's important that for the future we have these kind of targets clarified in advance, [as] we need to understand what is good for the sport.

"We are taking into consideration the advice and the comments from the drivers, but [also doing what is best] for the benefit of the sport."