Pirelli’s race to improve the tyres Hamilton called “dangerous”

A decision on next year will be made in July, and in the interim Pirelli has to develop and test tyres that the drivers, teams and the FIA are satisfied with. It’s not only a race against the clock, but it will have to be done with limited track running.

Pirelli has just three slick test sessions with which to meet its target. A selection of teams will run for two days in Bahrain next week and again over two days following both the Spanish and British GPs, after which the call on 2024 will be made.

Pirelli has been working towards a blanket ban for some time, largely for laudable sustainability reasons – it will mean less electricity will be consumed by teams at the track, and blankets won’t have to be flown around the world, which represents a cost saving.

“The idea to remove blankets is something that we discussed years ago,” says Pirelli F1 boss Mario Isola. “And it is a common target – which means FIA, F1, teams, Pirelli, promoters – to achieve carbon neutrality for 2030.

“Any step to make our sport more sustainable is important. One of these steps is to remove blankets to avoid using electricity to warm up the tyre before usage.”

In recent years there has already been a move in the right direction thanks to lower temperatures and shorter storage times – Isola suggests that heating F1 tyres in 2022 consumed half the power used a decade earlier.

The next step is a full ban, which was originally outlined in next year’s FIA regulations. However, after the recent meeting of the F1 Commission the rule was changed, so the current default position is that blankets will be retained.

It was agreed that after further testing a vote would take place in July. If F1 and the FIA both support the move, only five teams will have to agree, a process put in place so that one or two teams can’t block the change on opportunistic grounds.

That decision is in respect of an overall ban that covers slicks and intermediates. The same meeting agreed to make a special case for full wets. In essence Pirelli’s testing of those has been so successful that the Italian company wanted to introduce them within this season. They will be used from round six in Imola onwards.

“We tested before the Christmas break some wet weather tyres,” says Isola. “That was also our priority because last year drivers were not happy about wet weather tyres. We found a new compound…