Red Bull believes that F1 make omission by not returning last year’s specification of the tire!?
Red Bull’s chief engineer Paul Monaghan believes that Formula 1 must be less focused on teams when it comes to tires and believes that the sport missed a great opportunity by not changing the tire specification.
F1 teams during the weekend race for GP Austria voted to retain the current specification of the tire or to return to the tire specification of 2018, which have a thicker tread than the current tires. 5 teams were against 5, and a majority of 70% of the votes needed to achieve the change was not reached.
Teams with Ferrari and Honda engines were about to return to last year’s tires, while teams with Mercedes and Renault engines were against it. Monaghan confirmed that Red Bull wanted to return to last year’s tires.
“Pirelli is in a difficult situation,” says Monaghan. “They do a decent job, they will win in every race, tires survive on the car, and they must keep the safety record.”
“At the price of the risk of being a bit controversial, we would gladly accept the 2018 tires back. I think that this risk is not as big as some think.”
“It’s about creating a show, I think we need to take a step back, take a position that is not focused on the teams and say: ‘If it was better for the show, would the teams be able to deal with that change’. It’s our opinion that we could handle it.”
“We accept that the required majority has not been achieved with votes, but we have a slightly different opinion than most teams.”
Pirelli changed the tire specification for 2019 to follow what F1 made for this season, in order to avoid blistering. But this season, some teams (primarily Ferrari and Red Bull) are struggling to hit the tire’s operating range, giving their rivals a great advantage in terms of performance.