Pirelli responds to marble issues

Pirelli has responded to the concerns voiced by F1 drivers able the tyre marbles seen during the Malaysian Grand Prix weekend.

A number of drivers had said they were worried about the volume of marbles seen on the circuit at Sepang, with defending champion Sebastian Vettel being quoted in The Sun as saying they were a real safety concern as 'a car in front of you will shoot them like bullets'.

Fernando Alonso and Vitaly Petrov were amongst the other drivers to comment on the situation post-race but Pirelli motorsport boss Paul Hembery insists that marbles are a natural product of the fact that the latest F1 tyres have been designed to degrade during a stint on track.

However, Hembery says that Pirelli will work to try and reduce the number of marbles generated, although not by changing the approach it has taken in an attempt to spice up the racing action.

"Once all the different strategies had played out, the last 10 laps in Sepang were absolutely thrilling - but you can't make an omelette without breaking eggs, or, in the case of Malaysia, rubber," he said. "The rubber 'marbles' on the track are a natural consequence of the increased degradation that has led to more exciting races: all that rubber has to go somewhere, just as it has always done in the past.

"Having said that, we're here to serve the teams' best interests and we're looking at ways of reducing some of the deposits in the future. But that's not going to change our fundamental philosophy: we want to give racing back to the racers."