Pirelli can't clarify why its C6 tyre was so unhealthy in Imola GP qualifying

Pirelli’s new C6 tyre made its maiden look as a part of the race-weekend at Imola however left everybody, together with the tyre provider itself, baffled when opponents struggled to make it final over a single lap. The 2 Aston Martin drivers and Mercedes’ George Russell set their finest laps in qualifying on the C5, which is the medium tyre choice for the Imola GP.

What’s all of the extra stunning is that after Friday’s two follow classes, the primary significant check of the brand new gentle compound, many of the feedback have been optimistic.

Pirelli claimed it provided a noticeable step up in grip from the C5 and the distinction in laptime between the 2 was even higher than its simulations had prompt – as much as half a second a lap fairly than 0.2-0.3s.

However this positivity evaporated on Saturday as each workforce discovered the C6’s efficiency dropped off dramatically over the course of a push lap except it was managed completely.

This was what pushed Mercedes to ship Russell out on the C5 for his last Q3 run, compromising his obtainable tyre choice for the race. It emerged that Aston Martin had already taken the choice to make use of each the C5 and C6 in qualifying on Friday evening.

Talking after qualifying however earlier than all the information had been analysed, Pirelli motorsport supervisor Mario Isola admitted that the explanations for the C6 not working as anticipated weren’t but clear.

Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin Racing

Photograph by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Photos through Getty Photos

“I imagine, and the overall feedback from drivers is that immediately [Saturday], they skilled extra understeer in contrast with yesterday, and this might clarify the explanation the observe was not faster,” he mentioned.

“For those who take a look at the lap occasions, not a lot faster than yesterday. We had little or no observe evolution, and along with the understeer they mentioned it was tough to extract the efficiency from the C6.

“So, the C6 was harder to make use of, in all probability the preparation lap was tough. We can not discover a clear pattern within the sector occasions to say that there was a degradation from sector one to sector three.”

Though the expectation was that the C6 can be as much as half a second faster per lap, when pushed on Saturday it proved to be much less predictable and constant than the C5 – which accounts for why many drivers who tried the medium in FP3 and qualifying have been in a position to go quicker than they have been on the gentle.

A number of groups additionally noticed that their drivers have been in a position to extract a greater lap time from a C6 that had already been used.

Pirelli’s clarification for this was that the used tyre’s efficiency peak was decrease, however extra predictable and simpler to entry.

Mario Isola, Racing Supervisor, Pirelli Motorsport

Photograph by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Photos

“If we take into account that this compound could be very gentle and, as standard with a gentle compound, you’ve got a curve of grip with a peak that is a little more sharp,” mentioned Isola.

“Then clearly in the event you give a warmth cycle to the brand new tyre, you’ve got a barely completely different curve of grip with much less peak, and which means it’s a bit simpler to make use of a tyre like this.”

Much less simply defined was the shift in the direction of understeer. Pirelli had dropped the minimal strain for the rear tyres by one psi in a single day however this in itself wouldn’t be prone to account for such a change in stability.

Typically groups dial in understeer to guard the rear tyres – but when it was a deliberate setup selection it appears counter-intuitive to complain about it.

“It’s not clear why they have been complaining about this extra understeer in contrast with yesterday as a result of there are not any components to assist this,” mentioned Isola.

“We did not have any rain in a single day or something unusual, however the observe gave the impression to be slower in contrast with yesterday – and everybody, generally as a median, we had this remark of extra understeer in contrast with yesterday.

“Yesterday the limitation was the rear, immediately evidently was extra the entrance.”

Lando Norris, McLaren

Photograph by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Photos through Getty Photos

What makes the change much more puzzling is that the climate situations have been largely constant from daily, although the wind had modified path.

Using completely different engine energy modes for qualifying can be unlikely to account for the shift, because the C6 was additionally problematic in Saturday’s third follow session.

“We all know that one psi in each instructions, in the event you improve otherwise you go down, shouldn’t be actually altering the stability,” mentioned Isola.

“It by no means occurred earlier than so I can not think about that. There’s something larger that we have not found but that was going to vary this stability.”

Additional evaluation will point out whether or not groups’ setup decisions did have an affect. The size of Imola’s pitlane naturally steers groups in the direction of a one-stop technique as a result of the time loss is within the order of 28 seconds.

Defending the tyres as a lot as potential due to this fact turns into crucial – so it’s potential that, having noticed the rear axle to be a ‘limitation’, groups intentionally dialled in additional understeer to guard the rear tyres. It’s frequent follow however, working with an unfamiliar tyre compound, they could have gotten extra understeer than they anticipated.

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Regardless of this weekend’s stumble, Pirelli intends to push on with its plan to roll out the C6 at extra races and probably ‘skip’ compounds in its tyre choice – basically constructing in a disincentive to run one-stop methods.

Because the complete tyre household is homologated for the 12 months and can’t be modified, that’s the solely choice on the desk: discover a resolution utilizing the tyres that exist already.

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