09/06/2019
NEWS STORY
Increasingly more and more teams are experiencing issues with the 2019-spec tyres, with Ferrari and Red Bull now joining the chorus of disapproval at the thinner treaded version on offer this year.
Indeed, the only team that appears happy with the 2019 tyres is Mercedes, which has won all six races thus far, scoring 1-2s in five of them.
With teams unable to get their tyres into an effective working window, there is talk of them formally requesting a switch back to the 2018-spec tyres, a move that would face opposition from Mercedes.
"It has actually worked into their favour," Christian Horner told Sky Sports, "and puts them in a really nice window.
"But it's for the rest of us to try to catch that up," he admitted.
"The best thing would be if they went back to last year's tyres," he said. "You'd probably find nine teams quite happy with that but one team fairly unhappy. In the interest of entertainment in F1, that would be a noble thing of Pirelli to do."
"Every year we have new tyres from Pirelli," Toto Wolff told reporters in response to the calls for change. "Sometimes you manage to understand them quicker. Sometimes you struggle more.
"As fair competitors out there, we need to make the best of what's been given to us unless it becomes a safety issue. Like we've had in the past," he added.
"Pirelli's been given an impossible task, telling them to give us tyres that degrade so that strategies become exciting. Then, once we have tyres that degrade people are asking to have tyres that last longer.
"I think we need to protect and support Pirelli in their task to give a tyre that hopefully suits everybody. This is what we're doing and not letting ourselves to be distracted with voices that don't matter."
For Pirelli to change the tyre spec during the season, a request would have to be made either by the FIA or 70% of the teams, or unless there were safety concerns.