F1 must be less team focused over tyres – Red Bull

Red Bull chief engineer Paul Monaghan feels Formula 1 must adapt itself to improve its show element and feels changing the tyre specifications was a clear opportunity missed.

F1 teams held a vote at the Austrian Grand Prix on whether to revert to the 2018 Pirelli tyres specifications, which have a thicker gauge compared to the 2019 compounds, with teams split in a five-five decision.

With a majority of seven votes required to push through the tyre specification change mid-season the vote duly fell through. It is believed the split occurred between the Honda-powered and Ferrari-powered teams opting for 2018’s tyres while the Mercedes-powered and Renault-powered teams wanted to keep the 2019 tyres.

Monaghan confirmed Red Bull were eager to revert to the 2018 tyres and while it was expected to improve his team’s car performance he also highlighted the need to help F1’s on track action after Mercedes stormed to eight consecutive wins at the start of 2019 before Max Verstappen ended that run for Red Bull in Austria.

“It puts Pirelli in a slightly difficult position,” Monaghan said. “They’re doing a decent job, they’re going to win every race, the tyres are surviving on the cars, and they’ve got to maintain their safety record.

“At the risk of being slightly controversial we would quite happily accept the 2018 tyres to come back. I don’t think the risk is as great as some perceive.

“It is about creating a show and I think we almost have to take a step back and take a slightly less team-centric position and turn around and say ‘well, if it would be better for the show, could the teams cope with it’ and our opinion is yes, we could.

“We accept there has been a majority vote not to do so but we hold a slightly different view to the majority then.”

Pirelli followed F1 objectives by changing the tyre specification for this season to a thinner tread and gauge to increase tyre degradation rates while avoiding blistering which was a common problem seen last year.

But this season some teams, most notably the Ferrari-powered squads, have struggled to find a consistent operating window with Pirelli’s new tyres allowing rivals to secure clear performance advantages.