F1 tried the Alternative Tire Allocation format for the first time in recent races, reducing the number of tire sets to be used over the weekend from 13 to 11. This saved a total of 17 tons of equipment and was a big step forward in addressing sustainability concerns.
While the changes seemed to spice up Saturday's pole battle, some drivers feel that reducing the number of tires affected their practice sessions. Another issue highlighted by the pilots is the wet tires, which are brought to the end of each week and are thought to go to waste when it doesn't rain.
“I don't think getting rid of one or two sets of tires is enough to talk about sustainability,” said Lewis Hamilton. said. “Lots of wet tires are thrown away every weekend, every weekend.”
Carlos Sainz added: “Too many wet tires go to waste over the weekend, and we need to solve that.” used his statements.
Pirelli denied these allegations and announced that the wet tires that were not used in European races continued to be used in the following races. Pirelli motorsport chief Mario Isola said: “In European races, we supply teams with leftover tires from previous races, we don't even remove the tires from the rims.” said. “For overseas events, the situation is more complicated because the wheels have to travel with the teams, while the tires have to go with us due to customs.”
Isola said that in the future they would like to have the opportunity to remove the tires from the rims and reinstall them in subsequent races. Another idea they've discussed in the past was that not all tires should be used in races with usually sunny weather conditions such as Bahrain, Abu Dhabi or Jeddah.
“If we had a procedure for that, we could have used these tires for other races,” Isola said. We have a lot of ideas to avoid wasting wet tires.” said.
