Pirelli opted to reduce the depth of the tread on the dry tyres by 0.4mm to combat the blistering that many teams suffered during the pre-season testing because the circuit was resurfaced. Because of this, many fans (mostly of the Prancing Horse) have discredited Mercedes’ recent victory, claiming that Pirelli made the changes in favour of the Mercedes team.
As usual, the Ferrari fans have folded up their tin foil hats and are throwing around conspiracy theories because their team didn’t take home a victory. To anger them even more, Sebastian Vettel didn’t even get on the podium because of the team’s disastrous pit strategy, which we have come to expect from this team.
The idea that Pirelli would change their tyres to benefit Mercedes is simply insane and really unfounded. Mercedes was not the only team to suffered from lots of tyre blistering and degradation. Just looking back at the photos of the cars during testing, you can see noticeable blistering on the Toro Rosso, Red Bull, McLaren and most notably the Sauber… oh and yes, the beloved Ferrari as well. The only reason that the press reported on the Mercedes blistering is because Mercedes is a big team. No one cares if the Sauber is suffering from blistering (no offense to Sauber, you know I love you guys) because it doesn’t make a good story. But hearing that the defending World Champions are suffering from blistering, now that’s something that people would click on.
So how did Lewis Hamilton get such a massive lead? Well, Pirelli already said that the new tyres don’t have any performance differences and that’s proven with the lap times relative to pre-season testing. You could use the argument that the tyre lasts longer on the Mercedes car than it did in testing, but that still doesn’t explain the huge lead because Hamilton was able to gain a lead of 4 seconds after just a handful of laps in the race.
No other teams had issues running the single stop strategy… in fact most of them did. Ferrari never had the win in Spain, but they could have had a podium position. It’s their own fault that they threw it away by pitting and giving up track position under the VSC period.
Ferrari fans are quick to throw around these conspiracy theories, but then whenever anyone mentions the advantage that Ferrari was able to get away with by running those Halo wing mirrors, which were so clearly illegal that it’s shocking anyone even thought it was a good idea, there is silence.
Why must Ferrari fans always play the blame game when they lose? Yes, I realize that Mercedes fans do the same thing too. They came up with the term Ferrari International Assistance. But I’ve found that there are a lot more crying Ferrari fans than there are Mercedes fans. Regardless, it’s childish from both sides.
Even if Pirelli changed the tyres because of a suggestion by Mercedes, why is that wrong? Every team makes suggestions to the regulations because it benefits them. It’s exactly why Ferrari had threatened to leave unless the new engine regulations are modified. It’s just what happens in motorsport. Every team is in it for themselves.
But there’s no point trying to use logic to argue anything with upset fans because it just turns into a shouting match. If you want to believe that Pirelli changed the tyre regulations to benefit Mercedes, then there is no one stopping you from believing so. At the end of the day, it doesn’t change the outcome of the race and doesn’t really amount to much.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organization, employer or company. Assumptions made in any analysis contained within this article are not reflective of the position of any entity other than the author.
