“Teams have clashing and often paranoid agendas”
Rather like a tyre and the wheel to which said rubber is attached, Formula 1 politics moves in circles.
Thus, as we look towards a new generation of rules – a teaser in 2019, followed by a more considered package for 2021 – the same old arguments are unfolding as predictably as an episode of Murder, She Wrote.
One of the key focal points of debate, lobbying and outright rancour is the tyre. The drivers want rubber that offers grip in abundance and doesn’t have to be nurse-maided throughout a stint; teams have clashing and often paranoid agendas concerning who might gain an advantage through such-and-such a concept; and fans just never want to hear the words ‘degradation’ or ‘graining’ again.
Attempting to square the proverbial circle – not a good idea when dealing with round objects – Pirelli introduced softer compounds across the board for 2018, only to see worrying evidence of heat-related damage as early as pre-season testing. As a result, teams and drivers dialled back the pace, leading to a succession of pedestrian and tactically monotonous one-stop grands prix. And when Pirelli tried to do the right thing by introducing a thinner-treaded version for Barcelona, Paul Ricard and Silverstone, potential hot spots (if you’ll pardon the pun) for blistering, they were accused of pandering to pressure from Mercedes – the team seemingly most afflicted by blisters during testing.
The fact that Sebastian Vettel tried the thickertread tyres in a test immediately after the Spanish Grand Prix and suffered chronic blistering seems to have been lost in the whirlwind of noise. When Pirelli announced that thinner treads, along with more heat-resistant materials in the carcasses, will be the default option next season, the arguments began anew. This, palpably, has got Toto Wolff’s goat, and the Mercedes boss didn’t hold back when the question came up at Interlagos.
“I think there is just people who have no clue, that get meddled into the discussion about how the tyres should look like, and how they should behave,” he fumed. “They should keep out of it, they should listen to the drivers and to the teams, and the teams shouldn’t be opportunistic as they have been in the past, thinking that somebody has an advantage or disadvantage and then lobbying for a certain direction.
“This is what the story of this thing was, when you remember back six months ago, the discussion about the thinner tread. I mean, it’s unbelievable that people said, ‘Yeah, Mercedes wants them because they’re blistering’, and then at the next race [Austria] another team [Renault] was blistering and they couldn’t even finish their stint properly.
“It’s just pathetic how opportunism drives various stakeholders in this business, to push for a direction that is detrimental for the sport.”
It’s difficult to disagree with Toto here. But then again he has never been shy of using Mercedes’ political clout to advance the team’s cause in other areas of debate. Karma’s a bitch, no?