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Formula 1
F1: Tires Good For The Show, Says Vettel
Reigning World Champion Sebastian Vettel talks tires in Barcelona...
Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel will make a U.S. TV appearance after the Canadian Grand Prix. (Photo: AFP/Getty Images)
Sebastian Vettel says that racing in 2012 is very different than in the past, but says that it is probably better for the fans.
The reigning World Champion was being questioned about Michael Schumacher’s recent criticism of Pirelli, and the increased role that tires have had this year.
“I think we get a completely different impression inside the car than you might get outside the car,” said Vettel. “So, you’re always talking of two different worlds. I think for us, quality of racing, if you compare racing today, you have to, I think, look after your tires a lot more than probably you had to three, four, five years ago.
“For us, if you take for instance 2009 where we were allowed to refuel, we had new tires and the tires lasted longer, in that they didn’t see that much degradation. It’s a different quality inside the car because you can push nearly every lap similar to qualifying, whereas now I think the racing is different – we fuel the cars up, they are much heavier, and if you have a heavier car, there’s more stress for the tires, so it puts the whole thing in a different window.
“If you put a new set of tires on with 20 laps to go, or 15 laps to go, which is, let’s say, the stint length, earlier, a couple of years ago, it’s a different world for the tires. The tires do see more degradation and then we start to slide and then one guy slides more than the other because he puts his tires on two laps earlier. It creates a different type of racing, more overtaking, which I imagine is seen as better quality from the outside, simply because things happen. I think it depends what you really want. We have more overtaking.”
Meanwhile, Vettel said that Barcelona could provide some pointers for the rest of the season.
“I think it’s the fact that we know a lot about this track, we have a lot of data to compare against, to see if we did a step forward compared to the winter and how big the step was,” the Red Bull driver said. “Surely then you have to consider different temperatures – it’s a different time of year so it’s also difficult to compare black and white – but, yeah, as a rule of thumb probably this circuit does give you an idea because simply you have all the corners you find somewhere else, you have tight chicanes like in the last sector, hard braking for the hairpin, fast corners like in the first sector. You have a bit of everything.”
He admitted that the different weather conditions confused the issue:
“You race here in May, it’s quite different if you look at the temperatures compared to February or March, so yeah, it does have a big change on the setup,” Vettel said. “So whatever you might have found out over the winter in testing, it might not work in the same way or the same style it did during testing. Also, you need to consider that the cars you launch are quite different to the cars you race at the first race, and then, you know, you race around May or June later in the season.”
Adam Cooper notched up his 27th season as a racing journalist in 2011. He has written about F1 for SPEED.com since 2005. Follow him on Twitter.
The reigning World Champion was being questioned about Michael Schumacher’s recent criticism of Pirelli, and the increased role that tires have had this year.
“I think we get a completely different impression inside the car than you might get outside the car,” said Vettel. “So, you’re always talking of two different worlds. I think for us, quality of racing, if you compare racing today, you have to, I think, look after your tires a lot more than probably you had to three, four, five years ago.
“For us, if you take for instance 2009 where we were allowed to refuel, we had new tires and the tires lasted longer, in that they didn’t see that much degradation. It’s a different quality inside the car because you can push nearly every lap similar to qualifying, whereas now I think the racing is different – we fuel the cars up, they are much heavier, and if you have a heavier car, there’s more stress for the tires, so it puts the whole thing in a different window.
“If you put a new set of tires on with 20 laps to go, or 15 laps to go, which is, let’s say, the stint length, earlier, a couple of years ago, it’s a different world for the tires. The tires do see more degradation and then we start to slide and then one guy slides more than the other because he puts his tires on two laps earlier. It creates a different type of racing, more overtaking, which I imagine is seen as better quality from the outside, simply because things happen. I think it depends what you really want. We have more overtaking.”
Meanwhile, Vettel said that Barcelona could provide some pointers for the rest of the season.
“I think it’s the fact that we know a lot about this track, we have a lot of data to compare against, to see if we did a step forward compared to the winter and how big the step was,” the Red Bull driver said. “Surely then you have to consider different temperatures – it’s a different time of year so it’s also difficult to compare black and white – but, yeah, as a rule of thumb probably this circuit does give you an idea because simply you have all the corners you find somewhere else, you have tight chicanes like in the last sector, hard braking for the hairpin, fast corners like in the first sector. You have a bit of everything.”
He admitted that the different weather conditions confused the issue:
“You race here in May, it’s quite different if you look at the temperatures compared to February or March, so yeah, it does have a big change on the setup,” Vettel said. “So whatever you might have found out over the winter in testing, it might not work in the same way or the same style it did during testing. Also, you need to consider that the cars you launch are quite different to the cars you race at the first race, and then, you know, you race around May or June later in the season.”
Adam Cooper notched up his 27th season as a racing journalist in 2011. He has written about F1 for SPEED.com since 2005. Follow him on Twitter.
Spanish Grand Prix
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