Mario Isola, head of Pirelli's motorsport division, answered fans' questions and explained what prompted Pirelli to make changes to the tyre's structure over the course of the season.
According to Isola, the teams found far more downforce than expected in the first part of the season. According to Pirelli's calculations, the downforce level achieved at the beginning of the season would have been reached at the end of the season under normal conditions.
But getting to this level at the start of the season led to a number of safety issues with the tyres. Therefore, the structure of the tires was changed.
“We started the season with tires designed for higher downforce than the teams had at the time, according to our predictions. We usually leave a certain margin of safety for the tyres.”
“However, the teams have already reached the level of downforce that we expected at the end of the season in the third race. We assumed that by the end of the year, the loads on the tires would increase even more.”
“We had two options in this situation: The first was to change the design of the tyres, and that's what we did. We changed one of the materials used in the tire structure, which increased the integrity and strength of the structure.”
"The second option was to increase the air pressure in the tires, but we know the drivers don't like this approach."
"Therefore, we made changes to the tire structure following discussions with the FIA, but these changes had no impact on tire performance, efficiency or stability." said.
