19/06/2021
NEWS STORY
Today's press conference with Laurent Mekies and Mario Isola.
Q: Gentlemen, your memories of the French Grand Prix. Laurent, perhaps we can start with you? Home race for you.
Laurent Mekies: Oh, it's a long way back, Tom, but it's actually a very special memory, as it's the first race my parents took me to, probably back in 1988, as a small boy. So it was for me the beginning of a big, big passion and I have been very lucky as it eventually also turned into a job. We are very glad that we have spectators here today as it means that hopefully very many little boys and girls will also discover Formula 1 this weekend and become hardcore fans as we all are.
Q: Or working in it 30 years later?
LM: Or eventually working in it, yes!
Q: Mario, please?
Mario Isola: My first time was in 2001 but I have a lot of memories from 2003 and 2004 because I was involved in the Maserati MC12 project and this circuit was one of the test tracks mainly used by Maserati. I spent here, I don't remember, probably 100 days per year, something like that so it was really an old memory but a good memory.
Q: Mario, can we stay with you. It has been a busy time for Pirelli since Baku. Can you talk us through the investigation that has taken place since the race and the conclusions you reached?
MI: Yeah. It was a busy time because we obviously had to react quickly to understand what happened to the two tyres. We sent them back immediately to Milan and we started the analysis, not only on the two that failed but also on several other tyres used during the race. At the beginning we had the idea that it was debris because we found some other left rear tyres with cuts but then we discovered that the failure mode was a circumferential cut on the internal sidewall that is due to what we call standing waves. Standing waves are connected to running conditions. Now, running conditions are a mix of running pressure, camber, load, speed and because these running conditions were above our expectations we had the failure of the two tyres.
Q: Can you tell us now about the new operational procedures that are in place at Paul Ricard this weekend?
MI: Yeah, obviously after the investigation was concluded we sent our report to the FIA. As you probably know, we don't have the possibility to monitor and police the running pressures and the running conditions simply because we don't have a standard sensor at the moment. This will be implemented in 2022 but at the moment it is a sensor that is coming from teams, so we have to rely on measurements that the FIA can do directly. When we spoke to the FIA and explained the conclusion of our investigation they decided to implement the technical directive, with new checks and controls, that are obviously not replacing the policing of the running pressure but are checking more carefully in a way that is much more strict, that the running parameters are followed. We make some assumptions on running parameters and it is important that the tyres are operated within these assumptions, as any other part of the car. That's why with this new technical directive, or upgraded technical directive, we are happy with the result and that the FIA is carrying on additional controls.
Q: Laurent, what do these new checks and controls mean for you the teams?
LM: For a team the new technical directive should not change anything. At the end of the day, the technical directive does not change the way we operate the tyres. It does not change the running parameters of the tyres. What it does is it adds a number of checks to ensure that you are actually respecting the prescriptions of the FIA and of Pirelli that were already there before. So if you were respecting them before it does not change anything to the way you operate the car here, it's just that the FIA has a lot more checks to ensure that you are actually sticking to the parameters that were already in the regulations.
Q: Thank you. Mario, different compounds here this weekend. How will that impact?
MI: We have the same compounds that we brought to Paul Ricard in 2019. This is a different circuit. We have also some parts of the track with different tarmac. In terms of roughness it is not very different compared with 2019, but looking at Free Practice 1 the level of grip is slightly lower. I don't know, we will ask Laurent also! But I'm not expecting anything particular in terms of strategy or output from these tyres - C2, C3. C4. They are from the middle of the range. They are well suited to the characteristics of the circuit. I am expecting a one-stop race. Going softer was not the right approach because on this circuit, in these conditions and with the weather expected, which can be very hot in this period of the year, the C5 is not the right compound for Paul Ricard. So we decided to stay on the previous allocation - C2, C3, C4.
Q: Laurent come back to you, can we just talk in general terms about Ferrari performance? What chance a third pole position in a row this weekend?
LM: These are very slim, Tom. We will not be hunting for three in a row. But joking aside, we know our cars have been performing very well in slow speed corners so far. We know it's been a little bit more difficult in medium speed and high-speed corners. It's no secret that here the track's a lot more about these medium and high speed corners so we don't expect to be battling with the two top teams. We will be in the midfield. It will be a strong midfield. We'll try to understand if we have improved in these weaknesses that we had since the beginning so even though car development has been less this year obviously because of the focus on 2022, there are still means for us to try to unlock some potential, try to understand why we were more limited in these medium and high speed corners and this is for us a very good challenge to be faced with, to see if we've actually made progress there.
Q: It's a very close battle between yourselves and McLaren in the constructors' championship; you're two points ahead at the moment. Lando Norris said yesterday something quite interesting: he said Ferrari makes more mistakes than McLaren in the races. I would just like to get your reaction to that.
LM: It's a very tight fight with McLaren. As you say, two points apart after six races I think they have beaten us in the first three races. We have been in front of them in the last three races so it's extremely tight. It's true to say that our qualifying pace has been globally better than our race pace and therefore we have been too often having to sit back in the race, because we were not having quite the same edge that we've been able to have in qualifying. We are working on that. We are working on this race pace performance. We are working of course also on trying to do as little number of mistakes as possible, as I'm sure Lando and McLaren are also trying to.
Questions From The Floor
Q: (Luke Smith - Autosport) Laurent, Andreas Seidl spoke this morning and he said he thought there'd been a lack of transparency in the response to what was the exact cause of the tyre failures. He said that unfair assumptions maybe had been made about Pirelli, he said he wouldn't support criticism against them. I just wanted to know, from a Ferrari standpoint, where do you guys stand on it? Are you happy with what's come out or do you think there are still more answers needed?
LM: I think tyres are not different to engines, wings, suspensions, just to respect the parameters they are designed to work in with so we have a very clear set of parameters that we need to respect on the tyres, they could be pressure, temperatures, camber, whatever. We understand that from the analysis of Pirelli and the FIA, these parameters do not change and as I explained earlier, it's effectively introduced a number of additional checks to make sure that we respect these parameters so for us it's going to be transparent and you know, I would say that on top of the regulatory considerations, it's our responsibility as a team that we send out our drivers in the most safe conditions and therefore we were obviously taking these parameters very seriously already.
Q: (Dieter Rencken - Racing Lines) To Laurent, but if Mario would like to comment as well, please feel free to do so. Laurent, when we have a look at it, yes, you're correct in saying that you have all sorts of parameters for engines etc, but that isn't really the subject of that a technical directive which runs to 12 pages. We've also had technical direction on the flexi-wings, for example. Is Formula 1 becoming too over-regulated? I've got a copy of the 1963 tech regs and they run to four pages...
LM: I think it's going to be difficult to come back to the four pages, Dieter, but you know, allow me to stress that the technical directives, as lengthy as it is, does not change the regulations. It's only there to make sure the FIA has the means to enforce what was already written. So, it's like having ten policemen in the garage, if you see what I mean, and if we need to go there to make sure we have a safe spot on the first four (sic), then fair enough. I don't think it adds complexity, I think it's about enforcing what's already there.
MI: As Laurent said, it's important that we have a regulation this protecting everybody and it is clear that we cannot come back to a four pages regulation when we are working in an environment where we have the best engineers and cars are very complicated, rules are very complicated sometimes. The most difficult part is to explain to spectators what is going to happen. We have to find a compromise but it's impossible to think that we go back to 50 years ago.
Check out our Saturday gallery from Paul Ricard, here.
Q: (Luke Smith - Autosport) This one's for Mario, again on the tyre situation, again picking up on what Andreas said this morning about maybe some of the unfair assumptions made towards Pirelli. Lewis Hamilton spoke yesterday and he said it's not Pirelli's fault what happened. How difficult and frustrating has it been for Pirelli... I guess quite a lazy assumption might be to blame the tyre manufacturer but if the team's are running outside the rules then you guys can't really do anything about that, can you?
MI: I didn't say that... I mean it's not my job to define if they were running outside the rules or within the rules. What is important that we supply a product and we are sure that the product is used in the framework that is necessary to open the tyres in the right conditions. Is it frustrating? Sometimes it is but priority for me after Baku was to identify not only for me but also for all Pirelli team, also identify the causes of the failures and to come to Paul Ricard with actions in places to guarantee that it doesn't happen again. That was my priority. Then I read a lot of stuff in the media and obviously not all are really nice to read but it is what it is. My priority was to find the real causes.
Q: (Julien Billiotte - AutoHebdo) Mario, on the same topic: in a very tactical way, what sort of tactics can a team use to be within your starting parameters but outside when the car is on track?
MI: That's a question for the teams, because what I can answer to this question is that we receive data from all the teams. This is a package that was agreed some years ago so we receive simulations, we make our assumption, we come back with a preview and with prescriptions and then we check what happened during the races but we have the data a couple of days later and we react accordingly, adapting our prescriptions to the data that we receive. Then, if we receive that there is a parameter that is not in line with our expectation, we ask ourselves what can be but at the end of the day we have to rely on the data we receive and again, we cannot find what the teams are doing or not doing.
Q: (Dieter Rencken - Racing Lines) Laurent, I would like to follow up again on my earlier question about being over-regulated. If we set aside this policeman, 10 or 12-page TD. Is Formula 1 too over-regulated? You've been on both sides of the fence, so possibly you're well-placed to comment on that please?
LM: I don't think it is in this example, Dieter. It's not over-regulating to specify what pressures the tyres should be running to and what temperatures the tyres should be running to. I really don't think it is. It needs to be enforced because it's a key safety parameter and it's a key performance parameter so this is probably why it comes into a great amount of focus right now but I don't think it's a matter of over-regulating. I think it's a matter of enforcement and I think we, as a community, we should all very much welcome there will be additional checks that we can go out there in being sure that everybody's on the same page.
Q: (Luke Smith - Autosport) Laurent, I would like to ask you about the Ferrari young drivers you've got coming to you. You've got quite a few still in Formula 2, you've obviously got Callum Illott working in reserve role with Alfa Romeo for this season. Are you guys already starting to think about replacements for next year if any more of them could move up to F1 or do you think the way the market's moving it might be a little difficult to find someone like Callum or Robert an F1 seat?
LM: It's a very good point. We've been very lucky with the current generations of young drivers coming up. We have Mick in the Haas car, as you said, Callum is doing quite a lot of work with Alfa Romeo. He has done an FP1, he will do more, and we have Robert and Marcus, hopefully fighting for wins in F2, so it's a lot of drivers for the F1 market, you are right, but we think we are in a good position in a way that Mick is progressing very well, we are hopeful that Callum will have a chance this year to express himself with his FP1s and we are running him in our Fiorano track with an old car. We have data points to compare him to, we think he is developing well and we also see the next in line guys, Robert and Marcus, making progress. Marcus is struggling a little bit more right now but Robert has been taking more points than anybody else in Baku. He has won one of the three races there, he's fighting for the title and it's all going into a very positive dynamic. It's a good problem to have to think that these guys may have the potential to be in front of the task to find drives for them.
Q: (Dieter Rencken - Racing Lines) Laurent, if my information's correct, the soft landing that was granted to some of the teams expires at the end of June so a couple of weeks' time. In terms of budget cap, have you been able to restructure the way that you need to?
LM: Yes, thanks Dieter, yes of course, we are now halfway through the year and therefore of course the company has been under a great amount of effort, try to resize to budget cap values. We are getting there. There is a lot of effort still to be made because obviously it's one thing to stick to the values this year with pretty much a frozen car compared to last year, at least for a lot of its components. It's something different to be able to operate in that cap in the context of completing new regulations for next year so you know we finish one challenge and we start the next one. But again, I'm sure there is still many discussions with the teams, with the FIA, with F1 to find the best solutions moving forward and it's been very intense for us on that front.
Q: (Julien Billiotte - AutoHebdo) Mario, we know F1 teams are always on the edge when it comes to performance gains. Therefore, is it fair to ask if Pirelli's operating window is not too close to the failure thresholds, because we know they're always going to be on the edge? So if it's the same limit when it comes to the failure, can you do anything to put more space between these two limits?
MI: As I told you before, we always take a margin in our prescriptions to be sure that nothing happens. Now we learn that this margin can be probably not enough. It was the case in Baku but it was not the case for everybody, that's important to underline because we checked several tyres from different cars and we didn't find anything strange on the tyres or initiation of the failure or any other elements to tell us that we were really at the limit, so we have always to balance this margin and a prescription that is also in line with the performance of the tyres. We had to react to what happened in Baku and this exactly what we have done.
Check out our Saturday gallery from Paul Ricard, here.