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Tyres are this season’s big talking point and, with Pirelli and Mercedes being summoned to an FIA tribunal for testing on a 2013 car last month, the paddock in Canada is abuzz about the black round things which influence the performance of an F1 car more than anything else.
Whether anyone has contravened the rules is yet to be judged but Sebastian Vettel welcomes the action. ‘That’s the way it has to go,’ he said. ‘It’s not right to go testing in season. It’s clearly forbidden.’
Mercedes, however, claim they were given permission to run this year’s car by the FIA.
Meanwhile, Pirelli has been working on a new tyre aimed at curbing the wear and tear several cars experienced in Bahrain and Barcelona.
However, the decision has been taken not to run the new tyres in the race this weekend, as had previously been announced, and Vettel is worried that could cause tyres to come apart.
‘We have safety concerns, if the whole surface layer comes off and hits someone, in my opinion that is not safe. We saw with the accident that Felipe Massa had in Hungary in 2009 where a small part of the car he was chasing fell off, hit him, and it was very serious.’ Vettel told
ESPN.
Canada is a very different circuit to Monaco with high speeds and low grip, as opposed to the Principality’s tight, slow speed, grippy tarmac.
Mercedes’ weak point has been tyre preservation and the Circuit de Gilles Villeneuve tends to eat rubber.
‘You can overtake here, and tyre degradation will be an issue, so it should be an exciting race,’ said their driver Nico Rosberg.
While Mercedes will likely lock out the front row again, expect them to take a bruising on Sunday, unless it rains – which is a possibility looking at the forecast.
As Rosberg points out: ‘Our car is quick in the wet and I’m comfortable with it.’
