After British GP Tyre Degradation Issues, FIA To Further Cut Downforce For 2021 F1 Season

Pirelli has been facing heat for the last couple of weeks as tyre degradation issues hit most Formula One teams heavily at the recently concluded doubleheader at Silverstone. This included the delamination of the tyres of Mercedes cars of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas in the first British GP. In the second race which was also Formula One's 70th-anniversary race, Pirelli increased the pressures on the tyres to curtail the tyre degradation issues. Now, Pirelli's head for Formula One Mario Isola has revealed that the FIA is considering a plan to further curtail the level of downforce on the cars next season after it was initially agreed to limit downforce levels on next year's cars because of the lockdowns cased by COVID19. Now, Isola has revealed that downforce levels are further going to be reduced.

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Isola stressed on the fact that this wasn't due to any safety concerns in the aftermath of the punctures that Hamilton, Bottas and even McLaren's Carlos Sainz had at the first British GP, two weeks ago.

In the first race in Silverstone, Pirelli's tyres failed on many cars including the leading Mercedes cars of Hamilton and Bottas.

"The FIA decided to do that," said Isola of the change. "And I cannot say that I'm not in agreement. But I don't want the message to be that it's for safety reasons, because we can use the pressure to compensate for the level of load," he clarified to Motorsport.com.

Isola says that Pirelli could ramp up the pressure on the tyres to ensure there were no safety issues as witnessed in the 70th anniversary GP which didn't see a repeat of the tyre issues that the dominant Mercedes duo of Hamilton and Bottas endured at the fag end of the first British GP. After the delamination of the tyres at the first race Silverstone race for 2020, the leading Bottas ended up outside of the points while Hamilton endured a last lap puncture to limp home to a win. But the next race, even though there weren't tyre problems, the Mercedes cars had inferior tyre longevity than the Red Bull of Max Verstappen which led the Dutch upstart to win his first race of the year.

"For me, it's not a matter of safety. If we increase the pressure we can compensate for the level of load, the level of stress that you put on the tyres. We did it for Silverstone for the second race. Okay, it's difficult to compare, because in the second race we didn't have a stint of 37-38 laps. But according to the analysis we made on tyres after the second Silverstone, everything was working well. So the pressure obviously is playing an important part in this equation. And with the pressure, we can support the construction, sustain the construction. You have vertical and lateral forces that are acting on tyres, and we can establish a minimum pressure that is different for each circuit and is calculated according to the level of energy that is going into the tyres," said Isola pointing towards the tyre degradation and blistering issues that the defending world champions faced after the tweaks his company has made to the tyres.

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Mario Isola says the reduced downforce will help reduce tyre pressure levels offsetting the side effects of the increased pressure levels.

Pirelli's boss said while the reduction in downforce was less a matter of safety but a case of peak performance. He said that increasing the pressure of the tyres made them last longer but they created other issues like blisters and overheating, two things the drivers didn't want. He said, further reducing the downforce will help Pirelli reduce the pressure on the tyres which will in turn help reduce degradation, blisters and overheating.

"Considering that we are using the same product since last year and this product has to be used for this year and next year that is clearly helping the behaviour of the tyres, reducing the overheating, reducing the degradation and giving that to the possibility for the drivers to push a little bit more," added Isola.

Pirelli will basically be releasing a variant of the 2019 tyres even in 2021, but Isola is hoping they are able to make some modifications and perhaps will have the ability to test them in upcoming practice sessions.