Pirelli will not make mid-season changes to Formula 1 tyres

Pirelli returned to F1 as the sole tyre supplier in 2011 Photo: Pirelli

Pirelli will not make any changes to its 2012 Formula 1 tyres to avoid giving teams an accidental advantage in the second half of the season.

The tyre manufacturer made a change to its hard compound last year mid-way through the season, but with less than 50 points currently separating championship leader Fernando Alonso and fifth-placed Kimi Raikkonen, Pirelli has opted to stick with its current set-up for the remainder of the campaign.

“We could have done some changes mid-season this year, but having a season with teams so close together we felt that any changes we made could backfire because maybe one team would find that the change would be better suited to them and may give them an advantage, so we couldn’t do that this year,” Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery told ESPNF1.

“Going forward we have a couple of areas we want to improve.”

Looking ahead to next season, Hemery said Pirelli may make its tyres less of a challenge with major regulation changes set to be introduced in 2014.

“In terms of structure and compound choices we’re undecided [for 2013],” he continued. “We need to understand how much of a challenge the teams would like because we have to bear in mind that they will go straight into 2014 with a very rapid change in regulations.

“Maybe they don’t want to be challenged so much next season when such a huge challenge is coming the year after. If we did continue in 2014 maybe we would take the opportunity ourselves to do something more dramatic.”