So How Did it go for Pirelli?

Pirelli 2012 Tyres - Much Clearer Markings

 We asked Paul Hembery, Motorsport Director of Pirelli for a follow up to the Australian GP. Did the tyre degradation go as planned? And did the predictions they made come to fruition?

Here were his post Melbourne comments for My Formula One;

"The Australian Grand Prix certainly lived up to expectations, and we fulfilled our objective of providing scope for more strategies by reducing the performance gaps between the compounds and extending the window of peak performance. An interesting element was that there were many pit stops that were not for wear level but instead for degradation, confirming what we wanted to achieve strategy-wise. We also saw more use of the medium tyre than the soft tyre, contrary to last year. Despite this range of strategies there were some very tight battles all the way down the field right up to a dramatic final lap, with one driver crashing out and eighth, ninth and 10th places crossing the finish line practically together! The wear and degradation of the tyres was around 0.1 seconds per lap on the soft tyre – with the frontrunners choosing to pit twice, despite the rapid pace at the front of the field. Many congratulations to Jenson Button and McLaren for a stylish victory and also to Mark Webber, who scores his best-ever finish on home territory."

Finally, the markings on this years tyres are so much better, as you can see in the picture above.

Thank you once again Paul for taking time out to speak to My Formula One.