cameraman
10-29-13, 09:00 AM
That's Adrian Newey's take on things...
"Going back to 2012 tyres for sure helped us," Red Bull designer Adrian Newey said. "Our car generally gets quite a bit of its benefit in the high-speed corners and the '13 tyres were much more load-sensitive. "It was much easier to damage them if you put too much load into them, so we couldn't really use that high-speed benefit on the '13 tyres." Alonso had already identified the decision to revert to the more durable 2012 tyres as a reason for Ferrari's loss of form. Pirelli changed the tyre design for 2013 but a series of failures in early-season races led to disquiet among teams and drivers, and a change was then forced on the sport by seven tyre failures during the British Grand Prix at the end of June, one of which cost Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton a victory. A change in materials was made for the subsequent German Grand Prix, before the entire construction of the tyre was changed for the next race in Hungary, with a reversion to the 2012 design. Hamilton won in Hungary, but both he and Newey believe that was only because Vettel got stuck behind slower cars - including Jenson Button's McLaren. Since then, Vettel has won six consecutive races and the German sealed his fourth championship in a row with victory in India on Sunday. Newey said that Red Bull's domination during the second half of the season was also down to them improving their car - extra performance they were able to exploit because of the greater durability of the tyres.
The rest of the interview at the BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/24717889
"Going back to 2012 tyres for sure helped us," Red Bull designer Adrian Newey said. "Our car generally gets quite a bit of its benefit in the high-speed corners and the '13 tyres were much more load-sensitive. "It was much easier to damage them if you put too much load into them, so we couldn't really use that high-speed benefit on the '13 tyres." Alonso had already identified the decision to revert to the more durable 2012 tyres as a reason for Ferrari's loss of form. Pirelli changed the tyre design for 2013 but a series of failures in early-season races led to disquiet among teams and drivers, and a change was then forced on the sport by seven tyre failures during the British Grand Prix at the end of June, one of which cost Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton a victory. A change in materials was made for the subsequent German Grand Prix, before the entire construction of the tyre was changed for the next race in Hungary, with a reversion to the 2012 design. Hamilton won in Hungary, but both he and Newey believe that was only because Vettel got stuck behind slower cars - including Jenson Button's McLaren. Since then, Vettel has won six consecutive races and the German sealed his fourth championship in a row with victory in India on Sunday. Newey said that Red Bull's domination during the second half of the season was also down to them improving their car - extra performance they were able to exploit because of the greater durability of the tyres.
The rest of the interview at the BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/24717889