Pirelli responds to Schumacher's criticism of tire degradation in Bahrain

La Pirelli defended itself from criticism of tire degradation after the Bahrain Grand Prix. The English commentator Martin Brundle He said that the highly degraded Italian tires of 2012 make it impossible to establish a “wear consumption window”, thus becoming the dominant aspect of the season.

In addition to the English commentator, too Michael Schumacher he was critical, saying he wanted to talk to Pirelli to improve the situation: “The main thing that makes me unhappy is that everyone is driving below their level, and in particular below the level of the cars, to save tyres. I simply wonder whether the tires should play such an important role, or should they last a little longer to allow us to run normally, at normal speeds and not run as if we were under the safety car regime. I'm not happy with the situation, we'll see what happens in the future. If it were a sporadic problem with the car you could say that it is up to us to solve the problem. But basically it's something that everyone has encountered, with maybe one or two exceptions. And if 80% of the group has problems, then the supplier should think about it.”

The response from the Italian manufacturer came via Twitter, with its sporting director Paul Hembery:
“At the end of last year we received heavy criticism for the conservative choices we made which made the races boring. Open your minds, we are doing what we were asked to do."

Furthermore, Hembery added that tire strategy will only play a fundamental role for "another couple of races and then, like last year, we will return to a normal situation". As for Schumacher, Hembery noted that the German had not expressed any concerns during the winter tests.

Stefano Rifici