Pirelli’s efforts to spruik the benefits of its modified hard tyre compound being run for this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix has fallen on deaf ears in the team garages, with most drivers declaring their dislike for the harder rubber on offer at Barcelona.
The bulk of the field finds the compound – which Pirelli claimed would provide greater durability after being tested as an experimental compound at the last round in Turkey – too hard and lacking in grip.
Having used his softer-compound tyres to bridge the gap to the leading Red Bulls in the second Friday practice session, Lewis Hamilton described the super-hard compound as “a disaster”.
The time difference between this weekend’s two tyre compounds is some 2.4 seconds per lap, which will force teams to be quite particular about which strategy they use on Sunday’s race, as well as what tyres teams run in qualifying.
“I hope someone tries them in Q1,” Fernando Alonso said after practice. “But it would be a very high risk.”
“[Everyone will be] getting rid of the hard tyres as quickly as possible,” added Mercedes GP team principal Ross Brawn, when asked about race tactics.
[Original image via LAT]
Richard Bailey
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