#F1 - A tyre-anny of Pirelli?

Well, if you're a Formula 1 fan, you'll already be well aware of the debate raging within the sport about Pirelli's current models of race tyres.  (And if you're not a Formula 1 fan, you probably won't enjoy this post that much!)  Red Bull's Dietrich Mateschitz claims that F1 has "nothing to do with real racing any more" and that too much emphasis on tyre-management is ruining the sport - and similar complaints have been heard from some drivers in the field, as well as many of the fans.

I actually raised this issue on this Blog two years ago, in May 2011.  I didn't like the attempts to "engineer" more excitement in the sport, and I used the example of two teams mates - one qualifying in the Top 10, and one starting from the back of the grid, whose final positions in the race ended up almost reversed - to illustrate how I felt the high degradation of the Pirelli tyres were having too much influence on the results of races.

Although I still feel that way about the Pirelli tyres, I can't help but feel that Red Bull are just having a bit of a moan.  For the past three years, Red Bull have had undisputedly the best car, designed by one of the best designers in the business, Adrian Newey.  This year, their car (while still very, very good) comes in behind several of the other teams in a couple of keys areas - one of these areas in the way the car manages the tyres; Lotus, in particular, and also Ferrari to a certain extent, have managed to design a car which is kinder to the tyres than the Red Bull.

What we are seeing from Red Bull now, of course, is nothing less than the petulance and querulousness I would expect.  Every team designs their car to the same set of regulations, so in that respect everybody starts from an equal footing - rather than accepting that, on this occasion, the chaps at Lotus have done a better job than they did, and trying to improve their own car through upgrades as the season goes on, Red Bull have demanded that the tyres which all the teams have to use be changed to suit them.

As far as I'm concerned, this cannot be allowed to happen.  Much as I would prefer tyres which aren't so unpredictable, it would not be right to change things part-way through a season, just because one of the teams has thrown their toys out of the pram.  By making the tyres more Red Bull-friendly, Pirelli will be effectively making life harder for Lotus and Ferrari - in this situation, it could be Pirelli who "choose" who they want to win the Championship this year.

No, having started out with these high-degradation tyres, we must stick with them for a whole season.  By all means, change them for next season (when the regulations on engines and car design will be significantly altered anyway, and all the teams will be starting again from scratch) - but changing the tyres midway through the year would be like changing the rules of football to allow goalkeepers to handle the ball outside the penalty area, just because one of the Premier League teams reckon they'd have a better chance of winning if that rule were different.  Red Bull need to be told that if you're not doing well enough within the current regulations to win, you simply have to try harder, or take a different approach - not ask the sport's governing body to change the rules to help make it easier for you!

If Pirelli do change their tyres, in response to Red Bull's complaints, how much more are we going to see of teams campaigning for changes to rules they don't like?  In the end, Caterham will kick up an almighty fuss and demand that the points system be changed so that you can only score points if you drive a green car, meaning that they'll end up as Champions unless all the other teams repaint.

#F1 hysteria already

We've only had two practice sessions of the first Grand Prix of the new Formula 1 season, and already I am incandescent with rage.  And that's nothing to do with what's happening on the track...

Having read this report about the first day of practice on the BBC Sport website, I then decided to read a few of the posts in the comments section at the bottom of the page.  That was a mistake.

At the time of writing, there are 151 comments on that article - and most of them seem to be from people moaning about how "boring" F1 is.  After one day of practice!

Only four hours in to the new season and im bored. Vettel to coast to pole tomorrow with webber second (dominate red bull again!!!)
The chasing pack look close. Is it just a fight for second already??

-  THEgreatgatsby

I realise that its early days but after the promise of testing it has now returned to the boring inevitable even before the first race has begun.I can't stand the prospect of Red Bull dominating again.Put a monkey in that car and it would win. Instaed of that we have to suffer Vettel and his whoopee cushion. Now where do I find coverage of synchronized swimming?

- thisisridiculous

Just a couple of the comments from internet geniuses who think they can tell how a whole season of racing, on nineteen different circuits across the world, in variable weather conditions, at different times of the day or night, having to manage fuel loads, on often unpredictable tyres, managing engine and gearbox usage to ensure no more than eight engines are used over the season, will pan out - just from a couple of hours' free running before the first race.

(Apparently, these people would prefer an almost theatrical melodrama which rewards inconsistency and unreliability and produces flukey, anomalous results - Maldonado in Barcelona last year, for example - meaning that we never truly know which team, or which driver, is actually the best.  But that's a topic for another post, I think.)

But these idiots are to be expected, and there will always be people who claim a certain sport is "boring".  Why they feel they have to comment on every article about that sport, expressing just how bored they are with it, instead of filling their time reading about things which actually interest them, is anybody's guess - but at least their inane jabbering is relatively easy to block out.

What really winds me up, though, is comments like this one:

Can they not just BAN ADRIAN NEWEY from the sport? If this is anything to go by for the rest of the season I can safely say I will be losing interest quite quickly

- timmyotoole

Ban Adrian Newey?  For what crime, precisely, Timmy?  Oh, y'know - for being good at his job.

Is that how sport is supposed to work, then?  As soon as anyone who's actually any good at it appears, they get shunted out of the nearest exit...?!  I must have missed that memo.

So I guess now we have to ban Lionel Messi from playing football, as well?  We'd better tell Venus and Serena Williams that they can't enter Wimbledon this year, too.  It's a good job Michael Phelps has already retired from competitive swimming - otherwise we'd have had to ban him (and his incredible 22 Olympic Medals) too.

I think people like Timmy forget what this sport - or, indeed, any sport - is all about.  He, and others like him, seem to think that twenty-two of the world's best and fastest drivers have all converged on a little tarmac-ed area in Australian purely to entertain them.

Sport is about pushing the limits (within the rules of that particular sport) and trying to be the best you can be - the fastest, the strongest, the most accurate, the most agile, or whatever.  They're not just there to "put on a good show" for us back home - they want to win.  And, as a sports fan, I enjoy watching them trying to win.

I think this year's Formula 1 season will be very interesting, for a number of reasons.  I am hugely looking forward to seeing how things develop between now and the final race in Brazil, in November. Maybe Red Bull will dominate - and if they do, though I'm no Red Bull fan myself, fair play to them! - or maybe they won't.  We'll have to wait and see.

One thing's for sure, though - Adrian Newey is not likely to be going anywhere soon.  And that's got to be a good thing.