Could F1 teams pick their own tyre compounds?

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Date: 14th May 2015 at 9:33am
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Force India have proposed a change to the Formula One regulations to enable teams to select their own tyre compounds for Grand Prix weekends.

Under the current regulations, Formula One tyre manufacturer Pirelli select the two dry weather tyre compounds that all of the teams must use during the race.

Pirelli make these selections factoring in track layout, conditions, surface and temperature ranges.

For example, for the next Grand Prix in Monaco, traditionally due to it being a low speed street circuit Pirelli will always select the two softest compounds and will give the teams both the super-soft and soft tyres for the weekend.

At a hotter, high speed track, Pirelli would not choose this combination as the tyre degradation would be too high and teams would need multiple pit-stops to complete a race. Due to this, the medium and hard tyres are a frequent selection.

But what if the teams could make their own choices?

It would certainly create extra variety with the potential to mix up the field from race-to-race, as teams perhaps select a tyre to qualify better before taking an early pit-stop. Or take the polar opposite approach to run longer in the race and not worry so much about grid position.

Or teams could select tyres that they feel they can run faster on, rather than having long stints in the race where they have to look after the tyres rather than race 100%.

Force India, who are well known for making their tyres work well and consistently run longer stints in races in comparison to rival teams, made the suggestion. But the FIA it seems is open to discussions.

Pirelli’s motorsport director Paul Hembery however has reservations.

‘You’d have people who maybe need to risk more taking decisions that would create a safety problem.

‘You have to take into account some of the extreme conditions and it might mean someone making a choice we would not feel is correct.’ he told the BBC.

‘There is a logistical problem; the impossibility to sea freight, you’d have to start air-freighting.’