Hamilton piles pressure on Pirelli for better F1 tyres

Lewis Hamilton feels races are becoming ruined due to being dictated by tyre management and has renewed his call for Pirelli to improve its Formula 1 compounds in the future.

Tyre management tactics proved key to Hamilton’s latest victory of the season in the Spanish Grand Prix, with the six-times world champion dominating ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen as Mercedes appeared to overcome its tyre-related woes from Silverstone.

But after securing his 88th career win and fourth victory of 2020, Hamilton stressed he does not enjoy the current level of tyre management needed in grand prix races and wants Pirelli to develop a stronger construction.

F1 carried over last year’s tyre construction into the 2020 season after the 10 teams rejected Pirelli’s efforts to meet the target letter requirements, before the sport moves to new 18-inch wheels for 2022.

"We really need to put a lot of pressure on Pirelli for the future,” Hamilton said after winning in Barcelona.

"They didn't, unfortunately, do a great job with a tyre at the end of last year, to develop the 2020 tyre. And so we had to carry over the same tyre from 2019 into this season.

"In the past when they made the target letter, the drivers were not a part of that discussion. And so that's why last year I went to the meeting in Paris, as part of representing the drivers.

"We want to help them make sure that they set the target letter correctly. It's not been done right for a long time.

"Moving forwards, they're probably not going to be able to do it for next year, but for 2022 we need a better tyre, we need a tyre that gives us more grip, better safety, and enables us to to drive closer to cars and give you guys and the fans better racing,” he added.

"Right now, we're doing a serious amount of management. And I don't think that's what the fans want.

"That's not what a racing driver wants, to have to manage it behind a car, multiple seconds behind, because the tyres are not good enough.

"So we want to help Pirelli to make a better tyre, if they can. And that's obviously the question.”

Hamilton, Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas and McLaren’s Carlos Sainz all suffered front-left tyre failures late on during the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, leading to the FIA making further cuts to downforce levels for 2021 in order to ease the strain on tyres.

Pirelli believes the 2020 tyres teams rejected would have coped better with the high loads seen at Silverstone earlier this month compared to the 2019-spec rubber.