Team bosses says tyres need to be tougher

Alonso has no illusions about title chances

MANAMA, April 15, (Agencies): Pirelli are coming under pressure to make longerlasting Formula One tyres after Sunday’s Chinese Grand Prix saw drivers lifting off the throttle rather than go flat-out to the flag.

Australian Mark Webber started from the Shanghai pit lane and pulled back in again after just one lap to get rid of his Red Bull’s quick-wearing soft tyres as soon as he possibly could.

After seven laps, there had been a confusing four different leaders.

McLaren’s Jenson Button, who had described his Saturday qualifying as being more of a “driving Miss Daisy” pootle, found himself asking his team during the race whether he should fight those ahead of him for fear of wearing out the tyres.

“It was excruciating, if you are involved with a car that’s got to drive at that pace ... I would hope for the fans it was OK,” commented McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh.

Pirelli have introduced new compounds this season to encourage more overtaking and more pitstops to shake up the strategy.

That was seen as a good thing, to prevent drivers going for long stints on one set, but the new generation now lose performance so fast at some tracks that teams have had to take drastic measures in response.

The ‘team orders’ controversies that exploded at last month’s Malaysian Grand Prix were due mainly to teams ordering drivers to hold station because they feared the tyres would not last if raced hard.

“I don’t think it’s great for all the driv- they can. They don’t want to drive percentages. Pirelli are a very capable company and I’m sure they’ll get that resolved hopefully quickly.”

Whitmarsh said he thought the Italian company was already “doing some rethinking”. The next race is in Bahrain this weekend.

“I prefer it when Formula One is a sprint from stop to stop. I’d much rather, from a personal perspective, where you have tyres and you pull out and go for it flat out. Then, when they are worn out, you jump on another set and go flat out.

In Pirelli’s defence, the drivers’ mindset is also having an effect with the tyres confounding expectations.

Whitmarsh said Button had been looking after his tyres in his second stint, assuming from experience that they would not otherwise last.

“We then said step the pace up. Within three laps he was going two seconds a lap quicker and the tyres actually held in there. Upon reflection...he could have leant on them a lot heavier than his instinct (told him),” said the boss.

In Shanghai, Fernando Alonso says he has “no illusions” about his prospects in the Formula One championship despite ending a 12-race drought with an authori- tative victory at the Chinese Grand Prix.

The dozen races without a win was the Ferrari driver’s longest barren period since his winless 2009 season, and represented a sharp change of fortunes after a Did-Not-Finish result at the previous race in Malaysia.“It couldn’t have gone better than this today,” Alonso said after Sunday’s race. “This has a special feeling because it was a tricky race full of action.

“Along with the second place I got in Australia, this result shows that the car is competitive and that we are working in the right direction to always be in the fight for the podium.”