Pirelli, Hembery: “The teams will have fewer difficulties in 2013”

Il Pirelli sports director Paul Hembery believes F1 teams will have fewer difficulties with tires this year thanks to the stability of the rules.

2012 saw seven different winners in the first seven races bringing plenty of action to the track as teams and riders struggled to get the Pirellis working properly. Getting the tires up to temperature and then keeping them in the right window of use was the biggest challenge last season but Hembery believes the stability of the rules this season will help the teams despite the tires being more aggressive.

“The cars have remained relatively stable, and the teams are coming off a season in which they understood what to work with. We are changing the structure of the tyres, changing all the compounds making them more aggressive and possibly this could create some difficult challenges at the beginning. But we don't expect a repeat of 2012 when there were many changes to the cars,” Hembery told Autosport.

Hembery admitted, however, that stability should allow Pirelli to make aggressive compound choices throughout the season.

“The rules have not changed, so we will not follow the same format. We're trying to be more aggressive this season. There were a few races where we were criticized – probably correctly – for being a little conservative. And often when we were conservative we didn't help the Q2 teams. This created more problems for them as they lost some downforce."

Stefano Rifici