George Russell raised fresh concerns over the quality of Pirelli’s Formula 1 tyres, calling their performance in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix “infuriating”.
The Mercedes driver finished the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in third place. He ran the same one-stop strategy as all of his rivals ahead, starting on the medium tyres and switching to hards for his second stint.Russell was perplexed by the variations in his car’s performance during the race. He fell around 15 seconds off leader Charles Leclerc before his pit stop.
He then dropped up to 25 seconds behind in the second stint before gradually closing on the cars ahead. He picked up speed in the second stint and was within 15 seconds of eventual winner Oscar Piastri before the Virtual Safety Car that effectively ended the race was deployed.
“It was such an odd race,” Russell told the official F1 channel after the race.
“The first half of the race, we were 1.5 seconds off the pace. The last 20 laps, I was a second quicker than Oscar and Charles and three tenths quicker than Max, Checo and Carlos.
“It’s the same circuit, same driver, same car – we just went from a yellow tyre to a white tyre. Honestly, it is actually pretty infuriating that it changes this much. It’s not just the Mercedes, it’s every team and every driver. One session, you’re fast, the next you’re not. And there’s only one thing that changes.”
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Russell called for “serious conversations” to be had with Pirelli to address the inconsistent performance of their current F1 tyres.
“I think even the people who make the tyres don’t understand the tyres,” he said.
“I think we all need probably serious conversations again about what’s going on, because we’ve got 2,000 people working their butts off to deliver the fastest car. Twenty laps of the race, we had a car that was comfortable of fighting for victory, the twenty other laps, we had a car that probably shouldn’t have been in the points – and the only difference is the tyres. And it’s not good enough, really.”
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2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix
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- Hamilton explains suspension set-up change behind “miserable” Baku weekend
- Piastri needs “crazy” results to become title contender despite Baku win
- FIA taking new look at flexing bodywork amid intrigue over McLaren’s rear wing
- Norris knew Verstappen broke VSC rules in Baku because he did the same in Melbourne
PB
15th September 2024, 15:50
I didn’t think there’s such a mystery.
The lead three cars drove their tires to destruction, while George was on his own in the final stint, minding his tires.
BMW P85 V10
15th September 2024, 16:09
Russell had his fight with Verstappen as well. So stating he was on his own is not entirely the thruth.
Boudi
15th September 2024, 18:07
I’m not a fan of his but he is spot on, I’ve been watching F1 since 1994 and ai could tell directly today that something was off withcthe tyres for everyone. Hamilton was not able to overtake either Gasly or Bearman, for long long time, Charles was absolutely flying on the mediums then was nowhere on the hards, Sainz was at some stage several seconds behind Perez and his times kept fluctuating the whole race on the hards. Everyone’s times were dramatically changing from one lap to another. There is some base for his claims today really.
AlanD
15th September 2024, 18:57
“Hamilton was not able to overtake either Gasly or Bearman, for long long time”
We didn’t get to see much of those battles, but my impression of Ham vs Bear was that Bearman was getting DRS off Coplatino but not able to pass him, meaning Hamilton wasn’t able to get enough of a speed differential against Bearman. At some point, Coplatino jumped a couple of seconds ahead of Bearman, out of DRS range, and once that happened, Hamilton was able to pass Bearman. I agree with your general point though that the tyres seemed even more confusing than normal this weekend.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
16th September 2024, 6:36
HAM hasn’t been able to overtake a lot of people in the last year plus. Even his own teammate. Watching him languish down behind a HAAS and an Alpine was pretty harsh.
He complained about the tires going off, before the TV guys pulled the feed after qualifying, if I had to hazard a guess, hes probably got some sort of fundamental way he sets up the rear of his car/diff setting or what ever, or his rear suspension is toooooo hard or something, where he can’t get out of corners, or his team is plain sabotaging his power unit. Its obvious his teammate has consistently had much better performance out of the corners, and HAM at least deserves to understand this deficiency, and if he doesn’t it’s clearly to do with the team’s priorities and their interests.
The real consistent thing about HAM’s issues are that when hes way off the pace his teammate always comes back to him during the race. Almost always, but he can’t overtake him, so the point is moot. I blame Bono for not being on top of what ever is causing these ‘Saturday’ issues, but to be honest, I think Wolff has his nuts in a bind, and hes probably a family man. So his ability to go against the grain at Merc is probably next to none. Merc are not a serious team, at least not now (especially not last two years/self-sabotage), and I would hazard to guess, that they are more interested in future marketing endeavors with KA, I don’t see Mercedes as a serious racing outfit but one that will need to benefit from rule changes/politics/backroom deals to thrive-survive. Which means I don’t think they will have a competitive power unit in 26, unless the FIA are handing them special fuel flow regulators/meters. I just don’t think Mercedes have the NEED to excel or compete on a level that brings them out of their comfort level.
paulipedia (@paulipedia)
16th September 2024, 16:50
what are you on, you do realise he’s won 2 races and Mercedes are challenging for a constructors championshiop
Fletch (@fletchuk)
15th September 2024, 16:07
I think it’s time to rethink F1’s tire “strategy”.
It was introduced at a time where they really needed spice up the racing in the face of dominant cars/teams making for “boring” racing.
Right now we have 4 teams competing for wins every race, but we are usually robbed of half the race distances as they all go into their tire management phases – granted this race was a bit of an exception. I’d like to see the best drivers in the world racing on the ragged edge from start to finish. The ultimate test.
AlanD
15th September 2024, 19:10
The tyre rules are also about cost savings. When F1 really was on the ragged edge, three pit stops in a race for four sets of new soft tyres, that was an awful lot of tyres that were being shipped to races, and F1 tyres are horribly expensive. I find it frustrating sometimes that drivers cannot try for a zero-stopper, but requiring two different compounds in the race does make it a bit easier to manage the limited tyre allocation.
Crawliin-from-the-wreckage- Special Unhinged Edition (@davedai)
16th September 2024, 8:19
I replied but ended near the bottom sigh!
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
15th September 2024, 19:50
all teams are competing for wins because the tires are slowing everyone down. The tires are the slowest item in F1, hence nobody can go any faster than the tires will let them. It’s still garbage that F1 is being managed this way, I don’t think Bridgestone ever really went so low, to risk the safety of the drivers and limit the hard work being done by all those involved due to artificial limitation imposed by Liberty and the media minded boosies.
Rhys Lloyd (@justrhysism)
16th September 2024, 4:18
@pcxmac Pirelli started supplying F1 in 2011. Liberty took control in 2016—a full 5 years later.
But don’t let facts get in the way of your vitriol.
Kribana (@krichelle)
15th September 2024, 16:10
I have said this before and before this year: Pirelli tyres this year are almost at 2013 levels excluding the risk of burnouts. These are the worst tyres in terms of performance in their era.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
15th September 2024, 21:00
if their own engineers cannot reliably predict the performance of the tire, that means they most likely have quality issues, stemming from process/production, which is most likely proprietary and locked away from any real scrutiny. As I have said in the past, all one really has to do, in the realm of chemistry, is ensure certain tooling / process steps are ‘out of calibration’ to the point where things like the compounds are not arranged at a molecular scale according to intended design. It can alter the thermal properties, things like coeffecient of friction, and degredation. And all one really has to do, is look at the lots, which may or may not be very public items, and make sure the right teams get the right lots of tires, and everyone else can get out of spec tires that are snafu.
André
15th September 2024, 16:34
I’ve been complaining for years that F1 has become a tyre science sport. Not what it should be.
GT Racer (@gt-racer)
15th September 2024, 16:55
I’ve heard a lot of frustration & confusion about the tires this year from multiple people from multiple teams.
The one thing I keep hearing is that Pirelli’s guidelines are never anywhere near been correct & that on multiple occasions teams have been handed Saturday or sometimes even Sunday morning curveballs in terms of changes to guidelines that has made or broken the race for them given how they aren’t able to make changes under parc ferme conditions.
In the past even when the Pirelli’s were at there most extreme in 2012 teams knew what sort of performance was possible with each compound but this year it’s been unusually random to the point where you can build your race around Friday/Saturday running showing a certain compound will or won’t perform only to find out performance is not only different but so far outside of what is expected that it may as well be a completely different tire.
It’s to the point where there is a bit of a conspiracy theory doing the rounds suggesting that Pirelli are been encouraged to change the tire guidelines Sunday morning purely to benefit the show because of just how unusual the differences can be at times.
Tristan (@skipgamer)
15th September 2024, 17:05
Just Russell having a whinge. Just because you have 2000 people working their rear ends off doesn’t mean you deserve to have a good car. Other teams also have a lot of people working their rear ends off.
If your car is only working with one type of tyre then what’s not good enough is the car, not the tyres. The other cars on the track had the same 2 compounds.
Jack (@jt1234)
15th September 2024, 17:50
George is easily infuriated.
Coventry Climax
17th September 2024, 21:37
.. when things affect his side of the garage.
Sergey Martyn
15th September 2024, 18:00
Why there is only one tyre suppler? Remember the good old times with Goodyear, Bridgestone, Michelin and no stupid mandatory restrictions to use at least two different compounds over the race. That’s why people from Goodyear, Bridgestone, Michelin quit this hogwash because no sane person will buy the tyres which are advertised as the best because they are used in F1. Watching the boredom kingdom of tyre management and hell holes of severe degradation he will switch to other companies, no doubt. The only reasonable advertising from F1 tyre supplier should be – While other clowns have struggled with their sets which last ten laps, we won that race with just one set of tyres, that’s how good and reliable they are. And what about all of this moaning about that green agenda and environment friendly F1 because they fine the racers whose fuel consumption for a couple of seconds was 100.1 kg per hour, has to do with mandatory trashing of tyres which just kill ecology to produce and to dump them by thousands after each race weekend. Greta, what has became of you? :-)
Asanator
15th September 2024, 18:57
Sometimes i do but No, overall I don’t really miss the tyre wars. I don’t miss tyres being even more of a performance differentiator than they are now. One manufacturers tyres working better at one track than another’s at another track.
At least what we have now is a level playing field for all of the teams.
As for tyres lasting a race distance. Most people seem to forget (or just weren’t there at the time) that the reason drivers were able to push so hard on the tyres was down to refuelling. The tyres never had to last an entire race distance apart from 2005(? From memory) which was an awful year if you wre a Bridgestone runner. The stint lengths were short and the cars were carrying far less fuel (and weight). Before refuelling drivers had to do a lot of tyre management. The viewer just didn’t have as much information about it as they do now.
No, I far prefer a level playing field. The only thing about the tyres that I wish that they would get rid of is the mandatory minimum tyre pressures (Which are the changes referred to between Saturday and Sunday). Let the teams tune the tyres to their cars with tyre pressures. Pirelli can recomend a minimum and If the teams go too low and suffer blow outs, that’s on them.
Sergey Martyn
15th September 2024, 19:46
Well, I don’t think the current tyres can show anything now, but how a certain car with a certain setup can cope with such tyres – so that’s what teams are doing in free practices trying to find a balance of the performance. But if, for example, some teams knowing the tyres from the other manufacturer will last longer and they either compromise the setup to get less downforce on straights or push it up for slower parts of the track to get an advantage there. Otherwise, if you know your tyres will suck anyway what can you do except tyre management and other boring processions?
Coventry Climax
17th September 2024, 21:45
Ah, the holy ‘Level playing field argument’.
I’m not a believer, I must say.
So sorry, but a level playing field is when the same things apply for everyone (and are policed as such). That won’t change with allowing other or more tyre manufacturers in.
Nor will it change with more rules or with less rules.
Heck, even with no rules at all, it’s the same for everyone.
Personally, I do miss the tyre wars, or tyre competition as it is more appropriately named, just because it adds to the competition, instead of takes away from it.
mantresx (@mantresx)
15th September 2024, 20:00
Probably something happened at the Pirelli factory, changed some manufacturing process or something and now that the cars, teams and drivers are so good at understanding and measuring their performance, it’s the tyre inconsistency that has become the greatest problem for everyone.
Crawliin-from-the-wreckage- Special Unhinged Edition (@davedai)
16th September 2024, 8:16
Which factory?
Recent structure was
The Research and Development Centre is in Milan. Then there are the factories. Isola continues, “In Turkey, the Izmit factory produces all the F1 tyres. In Romania, Slatina produces the GP2s and GT – but can switch to F1 if it needs be. Then we have the industrial complex of Settimo Torinese, in Northwest Italy, where we produce our compounds.” Finally, there is the playing field: the circuit. “We allocate an engineer to each team, who acts as a point of contact between the team and Pirelli. He works in their garage and partakes in any meeting with the other Pirelli engineers at the weekend.”
So take your pick.
Johns
15th September 2024, 23:40
The hard tire today was the C3 compound. But the other tires were the C1 and C2.
We know the C1 wont even do a lap from past races; and the C2 has never been a consistent performer. These compounds just aren’t very good. The C3 and C5 seem to be more consistent. JMHO.
MacLeod (@macleod)
16th September 2024, 8:38
There is even a C0 but your right with some of those are more constant then the others. C4 is the really strange one blistering fast but a random dropoff as if they have different layers then the others of the same C4.
Ferrari went very well on the C2 but were rather slow with the C3…
The tyres are questionable!
Crawliin-from-the-wreckage- Special Unhinged Edition (@davedai)
16th September 2024, 8:07
Seriously?
Yet now Each driver receives 13 sets of tyres per race weekend from Pirelli and although Pirelli decides which three tyre compounds will be used the teams get to decide how many they choose of each compound that would be 1040 tyres shipped each race for all competitors (not including sets and inters.
Can’t get much cheaper or sustainable than that. All of which also need to be discarded whether used or not
Crawliin-from-the-wreckage- Special Unhinged Edition (@davedai)
16th September 2024, 8:51
Double growl
Each team not all competitors. I don’t trust myself to multiply that by ten.
Oh my shame.
AlanD
16th September 2024, 13:16
In the old days, each driver would typically have four runs in qualifying and each run would use up a set of supersoft qually tyres. I’m also pretty sure I remember them having mmuch longer practice sessions. For the current allocation, does that include their sets of rain tyres? One problem they all want to avoid is a repeat of the indy scenario. Suppose a team elected to just take softs and then discovered once at the circuit that Pirelli were saying the softs were only lasting four laps and beyond that they were positively dangerous. No-one wants to see teams not being able to race because they don’t have tyres. So I guess all teams will take at least a couple of each compound, and the two compound rule means they have to take a sensible mix. As I said though, I still think it a shame that cars cannot try the non-stop strategy. Maybe the rule should be that if you make a tyre change, then you must use at least two compounds. That ight also encourage ome teams to risk starting on hards and mix up the strategies again.
Crawliin-from-the-wreckage- Special Unhinged Edition (@davedai)
16th September 2024, 8:10
Well that was a reply to AlanD. I am not arguing with phones or sites tho
AlanD
16th September 2024, 13:21
I find it so easy to do that too, that and reporting people when I meant to hit reply. It would be so easy for the site to put an extra line between the bottom post and the “Leave a reply” heading, and change that heading to say “Start a new thread”. I am sure that would solve the problem. As for the report comment button, it wouldn’t be difficult to either put a confirm dialog on it, or pop up a box asking someone to say why they are reporting it. I can’t be the only one who feels really bad when I’ve accidentally reported someone after they’ve written a great post.
paulipedia (@paulipedia)
16th September 2024, 16:52
Simple solution is to have 3 tyre manufacturers
Coventry Climax
17th September 2024, 21:57
With the rules changed to saying you’re supposed to use at least two different brands each race?
I’d welcome other tyre manufacturers, but please let each and every team and driver decide for themselves which and how many tyres they use.
Wanna do something for the environment? Put a maximum to the allowed tyres used instead of a minimum. And or award extra points for having used less tyres.
Anything, but not this fake Pirelli misery.
John B.
17th September 2024, 1:06
I don’t know the solution to this but it’s inarguable that the most important part of the car in a race should not be the most boring part of the car.
Coventry Climax
17th September 2024, 22:01
So what are Stroll, Bottas, Zhou and Tsunoda still doing in F1? ;-)