How to supply F1 with impossible tyres, explained by Mario Isola

Pirelli have had the thankless task of delivering tyres to meet a contradictory clash of requirements in their time in F1. I spoke to Mario Isola, head of Pirelli Motorsport to ask exactly what that's like
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[@PendragonDaGreat]

I'm saving this for the inevitable "Pirelli can't make tires" comments the first time anyone has a blowout.

[@Roscododger]

Those people don't have the attention span to sit through a very informative and engaging video like this.

[@ZontarDow]

@@Roscododger Pirelli can spin things all they want, Stroll is going to keep pushing for a new supplier after they almost got Lance killed through their incompetence.

[@KayJblue]

@@ZontarDow I feel like I have to say this whenever pirelli is mentioned… The teams run the pressures significantly lower than what Pirelli recommends in order to maximize performance. Yes Pirelli is at fault as it is still not supposed to happen ever. But If the teams do as they say blowouts would probably never happen. Overall it’s a bit harsh to put all of the blame and anger at Pirelli.

[@almerindaromeira8352]

It's an interview not an explainer video

[@ZontarDow]

@@KayJblue the FIA sets the guidelines, Pirelli is supposed to follow them, we had multiple explosive failures from use within those guidelines.

[@PuncakeLena]

F1 should make an effort to highlight these points to the fans in an understandable way

[@ZontarDow]

If they do this then the blame for tire problems would be on F1 rather then Pirelli and if there's one thing F1 won't do it's take responsibility for the problem it causes itself.

[@PuncakeLena]

@@ZontarDow That's a good point. They never seem to like doing that yeah. The only thing they like is dead tree material that's painted green and has been assigned great value by man

[@aidanquiett668]

@@PuncakeLena Technically its cotton not paper, but ye

[@sportsjefe]

@@ZontarDow Right, if the casual fan understood that a tire *could* be made to run the whole race they'd wonder why that tire wasn't being used. Really F1 put themselves in this spot when they eliminated refueling.

[@rachelkoiks]

For real. And to REALLY get most views would be to make a challenge with the drivers somehow. Fans will learn something while being entertained like Grill the Grid-Teams. Teammates working together, or against each other, is always funny but if they get competitive then that’s even better. Entertainment + Tire/F1 Education = better knowledge among fans

[@Tomtom-nb8cm]

Thank you chain, as a new fan to F1, this is super interesting and educated me on the planning that goes into this sport. Videos like this help me understand F1 as at the start I was super lost on why they didn’t just drive as fast as they could at all times.

[@christopheroconnor4665]

Welcome!

[@VaraNiN]

Holy shit! Congrats on the interview! Really great to see your work paying off and you getting these high profile guests now :)

[@Tjezee]

Being the tyre supplier for F1 is such a difficult job.. they have to balance everything which is never going to be favorable to everyone. I really appreciate that Mario Isola seemingly always makes himself available for interviews such as this. He also pops up after races from time to time to explain what happened with the tyre during that particular race. Respect. They can make a tyre super durable and fast but they have to make them much worse just for the show and be criticized for it from fans that don't know the reasoning. So thanks Chainbear for always educating us.

[@Robert-nz2qw]

Mr Isola has been on a Swedish podcast several times, and he always instills confidence and honesty. I like him a lot

[@skitoxe4482]

Which podcast?

[@Robert-nz2qw]

Viasat F1-podden during the 2020 season

[@Trendyflute]

Ideally the tires would be balanced such that an N-stop race with tire preservation will be competitive with an N+1-stop race that uses tires more aggressively, such that roughly half of the field chooses one strategy each race and the other half chooses the other. To make that knife-edge balance sustainable, race-on-race, with 10 teams working hard to remove that confusion and find one clear solution, is nearly impossible and IMO more credit needs to be given to Pirelli with how well they've managed this task thus far. One thing that would help is if track design worked toward shortening pit lane loss times; look at the Canada pit lane configuration, which bypasses two on-track chicanes, as an example. Canada consistently gives a wider variety of tire strategies than most races because it has the lowest pit stop loss on the entire calendar. A lot of people are saying we should go back to two tire compounds, and I think that's a sound argument but before that happens I'd like to see a trial of a rule saying that each car must use all three dry compounds during a dry race, and see what happens in races with that rule in place, especially now that the Q2 qualifying tire rule is gone and everyone has a free choice from the start.

[@peterfconley]

I would have liked to see mandatory use of all compounds before Sprint Races, but they can't sell more TV time with that, can they?

[@Avdbz]

Perhaps n+1 a little faster as they encourage overtaking which is also needed cuz you have an extra pitstop probably putting you in traffic.

[@Xathon]

The new intro is great!

[@Walker_41279]

Seeing this my brain automatically makes a connection to the Indycar St. Pete Grand Prix last week. F1 brings 3 Tyre choices to a Grand Prix, those being the S-M-H compounds we all know between 3 variables. Indycar has something totally different. 2 Tyre choices, Softs or Hards, it is mandatory to use both for at least 2 laps and with that you close a lot more the options to the teams. You can make the Soft Compound last a mere 10-15 Laps and make them around 1-1.5s Faster x Lap than the Hards but you can make the Hards last for 30-40 Laps no issues. (This amount of laps is estimated to the St. Pete Grand Prix of 100 Laps). So you could in theory make a 2 Stop in a S-H-H Strategy. Which is very risky because of tyre degradation and the massive time loss of having to nurse the tires the whole race. While the Safe "Push like a maniac" option is just go straight out to 3 Stops S-H-H-S and you can kill those tires to make up the lost time in the 3rd stop. A clear example was Will Power pitting early and on new Hards he was absolutely flying and decimating the ones on a 2-Stopper nursing already shot Softs at the start of the Race. Giving the Teams 3 options widens the possibility for the teams to just skip the shortest life span and go for the ones that resist in sacrifice of speed. Maybe bringing back only 2 Options per weekend could be better for the spectacle. Soft and Hard compound. Red and White Sidewalls as in Indycar and the strategy management will be pure chaos (Leave the wet weather compounds as they are, everything is ok there).

[@Formula4Dopemine]

I think this is a great observation. Not seeing two stops during the course of a race kind of frustrates me. And also when the leaders are so far ahead that they can comfortably pit for a fastest lap attempt. Strategy is important but it’s become predictable. I don’t know if it’s because I don’t watch enough of Indy but I never know when they’re going to pit. To me that adds to the excitement. I don’t want F1 to be IndyCar, but I would like F1’s racing to catch up to Indy’s. Getting rid of Mediums might just do the trick, too. They could trial it like with the Sprint. Maybe on the Sprint weekends. Would be cool.

[@godoftenors]

I think giving teams the full selection to choose from for the garage each weekend would also remedy it- think you can make a three-stop work via HS//M/M/HS? Go for it- maybe a safety car puts you at the front for your final set. Maybe someone runs a one-stop H/M and outlasts you.

[@legoferrari14]

Something similar to the old Option & Prime tyres in the latter half of the Bridgestone years?

[@j.dietrich]

With all due respect to IndyCar, it's a completely different kind of racing. It's a spec series with basically the same chassis since 2012, which gives their tyre supplier a far easier job. Firestone don't have to balance the competing interests of teams with radically different suspension and aero strategies, nor do they have to deal with massive rule changes and mid-season updates.

[@joegillett2845]

Hola

[@darknes7100]

hey chainbear, love the vids sugestion, if you recoment subtitles for a video, placing fewer of the graphics behind the opaque subtitles would be a lot more clear

[@byst33]

Great video. This is why I love F1. It's using technological solutions to artificially inject sporting elements into what would otherwise be a pointless exercise. If Pirelli had to, they could make an incredible tire that would easily last the race. But that would mean no strategy, and no sport. Let's hope these new regulations accomplish what we're all hoping for: close racing.

[@Spyker8921]

No strategy doesn't mean no sport. Motor racing should happen on track, not in the pits.

[@fallenshallrise]

2 or 3 stop strategies are impossible because the FIA keeps making pit entrances and exits longer and are putting a 60 KPH pit limit everywhere so the time to drive through the pits and stop are way to long to allow for an extra stop. All pitlanes should skip 3 or 4 corners to lessen this lost time. Kind of like Canada where you skip the last chicane and drive straight into the pits.

[@Smegheid]

Where Pirelli got it right has been the distinct steps between compounds and the lap-on-lap wear. I reckon this has brought a lot to the racing. Where they’ve gotten it quite wrong is thermal deg. The notion that a set of tyres can be irreparably damaged because you had to push hard for a short while in the middle of a stint is an awful idea, and needs to go in the bin. I have no problem with pushing hard causing accelerated wear, but damaging the compound to the point it really never recovers ruins racing. I do wonder how they’re going to cope with tyre warmers going away in a few years. Recent compounds have been notorious for their refusal to work at all outside the temperature window, to the point where there isn’t enough grip left to drive the car hard enough to build temperature in extreme cases. It’s presumably not rocket surgery given many other series cope with room- temperature tyres when they get put on the car, but it is going to need a big rethink.

[@thehoodedteddy1335]

Wow, you are really going bigtime getting this interview

[@alexabrahams2905]

Confirmed: the new 2022 Pirelli tyres can play the piano

[@jason9875]

Great job getting Mr. Isola on an interview. Great to hear Pirelli’s perspective on F1

[@baggella7964]

This guy is very good on insights and he is a good part of the Italian sky sports coverage. They always ask him for sneak peaks on the paddock

[@UnfeelingMonster]

Really interesting Video! While I will accept you assertion that Pirelli tires can indeed play the piano, the quality of the play is what's important to me. Not sure how well rubber can engage staccato, I guess we'll have to see

[@djblc2201]

They should name a tyre the Pirelli “Legato”. Smooth and connected.

[@mohammedfaraj9680]

Can I just say kudos to you always making these superbly well edited, well produced videos

[@mogwix]

amazing info here. great work! It's awesome to see the teams, suppliers, and other F1 personnel getting involved with creators on youtube. that's so refreshing, and we get a lot of very interesting insights we wouldn't get in something like a press release or tech talk on F1 TV.

[@TheLastTater]

I gotta say, what a superb video! I love the intertwining of your graphics, narrations and his voiceovers. Fantastic job!

[@bkl43]

Top-quality production Chain Bear. Very informative and also your transitions in animation have gone to a whole new level. Keep up the good work.

[@jacksondade3826]

These videos are just so good. I actually used this channel in physics classes quite a bit to understand torque and drag and stuff. Crazy how much stuff in F1 is like actually educational. Even crazier how this channel breaks it down into a video you can watch in one sitting!

[@tayloreckert3123]

The text and graphics were really helpful while watching! Great content!

[@jonb2437]

I love how technical yet simple you guys are. Keep it up. This was a BOSS interview!!

[@kacperNFS]

Maybe pitlanes could have exits which skip a few corners so that they don't concede 20 seconds every pit but, for example, 10?

[@tyler-sq3ou]

Really interesting interview and I loved the graphics and text that you incorporated on top of it as well

[@bigbadjohn10]

Thanks for this. I am seriously impressed with how complex tyres are and how clearly it was explained and the approach used to balance the conflicting demands.

[@uncleardistress]

Your videos are a great place to learn about the sport. Thanks chain bear

[@Cyballistic]

Stuart, you have a great way of providing context in your questions to get more thoughtful answers from experts like Mario. Great interview mate

[@Eric-rr3zd]

This was a wildly fascinating video! Been curious about this since I started watching a few years ago.

[@Botfodder2]

You need captions to cover when Stuart misspeaks (he said "reduce overtaking" when the captions said "reduce overheating").

[@Davido2369]

Awesome interview @Chain Bear, thanks

[@PPedroFernandes]

I've been saying this for years, but no one cares... Pirelli has such a hard job to do, and I honestly don't think they're too bad at it.

[@johnafish]

3:55 - "they aim for less overtaking" - sounds about right for the FIA.

[@Wizzkidwas]

Captions show that was a misspeak that wasn't noticed and was meant to say "overheating"

[@johnafish]

@@Wizzkidwas I'd say a Freudian slip rather than a 'misspeak', and I didn't have the captions turned on.

[@rickyquanjr.8923]

Great work as always 👍

[@aaronaaronsen3360]

This was an awesome video, thank you !

[@etiennec8139]

Very interesting. I like how he explained they have to make compromises so the tire is as good for midfield as for top teams.

[@MarcoYoutube]

Excellent video, keep up the amazing work :)

[@Silverhks]

Very nice interview. Thank you

[@RAWDernison1]

Grazie, Mario Isola & thank you, Chain Bear.

[@thomasconway95]

Pirelli's best year was their debut in 2011, IMO. The change in 2016 of bringing three compounds to each GP has really hurt the racing. Three out of a possible five is simply too wide a selection, so there will always be a tyre hard enough to do ¾ of a race. Wish they'd go back to two compounds, it was much better.

[@mikulitsi1819]

When they brought three compounds back in 2016 I'm pretty sure, it actually made the strategies more interesting for that year but then they again started to make the tyres even harder ending up in pretty much every being one stop races until last year. But yeah I agree with you: 2011 & 2012 were their best years. So many amazing but different possible & viable strategies

[@zippo5294]

Amazing content, thank your for your work guys. Props to Pirelli

[@itissrinivasan]

If I read subtitles, I miss out on the beautiful animation. So I watched the video twice. Nice tactic there, Chainbear ❤️

[@davestrider2045]

Congrats on the interview with the Head of Pirelli Motorsports. Your channel’s going places.

[@Sir_Uncle_Ned]

Anyone who says "Nothing is impossible" has never tried to slam a revolving door

[@hdr_diamondz]

13:11 It is very important to me that the new tyres can play the piano

[@rachelkoiks]

Awesome you got this interview. I hope you tried to get some gossip and behind the scenes scoop off record. You could use it to your advantage when doing the prediction competition. Hehehe

[@siddarthchandran6201]

Thankyou so much for this detailed explanation. ❤️ From India 🇮🇳

[@GARBO96]

We have seen in multiple Motorsports if you introduce a spec refueling system you can very safely and reliably reintroduce refueling into racing Formula One is dating Itself by saying refueling is unsafe(they're able to refuel safely in NASCAR where they use 100% ethanol. Ethanol fires which burn nearly invisible)

[@GARBO96]

@kitusiek I'm guessing you saw the part where I said "spec" and "modern-day" and decided to delete your comment

[@snonsig2688]

Refueling isn't good for racing. Safety isn't even the main issue why it hasn't burn reintroduced. Overtaking jumped massively after it was banned

[@aidanquiett668]

@@snonsig2688 Almost every part of the cars changed with those regulations. I dont think lack of refueling was the fix, or else series like Nascar would have already switched to a no refueling system

[@GARBO96]

@@snonsig2688 there are multiple articles from the president of F1 and FIA at the time clearly saying that the reason it was taken out was for cost-saving

[@snonsig2688]

@@GARBO96 yeah. So what? The Improvement to racing wasn't anticipated and is now one of the main reasons against bringing it back

[@LeCharles07]

When Lewis retires, Pirelli needs to hire him as their test driver because no one provides as much "feedback" on any given tire as Hamilton. >.

[@SilentStrike117]

Every other lap he will just tell them that the tyres are nearly gone

[@mykey_7943]

Super informative!

[@willusher3297]

I'd be interested in a video about the performance charactoristics of the different compounds as they degrade (e.g. the graining phase, or how perf of extreme wet and inters changes as tread depth reduces).

[@Sneekskier]

I would love to see a tyre that "plays the piano"!!! XD

[@seanken336]

The intro seems to get better and better every year

[@Ahaggah]

Instead of pit stops there should be a additional section of course, parallel to the main race course, that each driver must drive a specific number of times.

[@FekalKilla]

This is really some quality content here

[@britboy70]

great insight

[@willusher3297]

I had no idea tires were designed to degrade quickly (both longevity and performance). I always wondered how Pirelli was able to make such a huge leap "forward" with the 2022 tires (e.g. operating at a much wider temp range), with only a couple years of development. Now this makes sense (though I'm sure it was still a challange).

[@j.dietrich]

FIA: Make us some bad tyres, please. Pirelli: Er, OK, if you insist... F1 Fans: PiReLli mAkE bAd TyReS!

[@aidanquiett668]

The FIA keeps nearly getting its drivers killed with half thought out ideas, and then blaming everyone else for it. Think the most obvious case was when they brought on the Halo after a driver was killed by a piece of debris. The Halo wouldnt have saved him. However, the windscreen that the FIA tested once and then threw out would have. And its not like it isnt racing certified, cause Indycar uses it

[@ginsbu]

I wonder how things might be different if refueling were reintroduced. It seems like it would allow a deemphasis on tires to drive strategy, and possibly open more diverse strategy options for teams.

[@mrbungle3310]

What i hope is they can push longer but theres a cliff once they pass it they have like a 5 lap window to pit before the grip is gone... and also they need to make the soft usable again

[@pedrochierasco6394]

Question for ChainBear not video related. Can we expect a “This year in F1 2021” edition? Or not this time?

[@fahada1921]

This is great content

[@noahjager9798]

hahahah 13:10 "can play the piano"

[@madjayax731]

06:58. Which one is moving the cars or the track?

[@data261]

ty chain bear....maybe im naive or w/e but i was always under the impression that F1 cars demand too much of the tires to be able to last entire races...or at least enough that taking on new tires is just better strategy...i never really considered that theyre made to degrade on purpose

[@nasyithrahman9594]

There was the time when it's mandatory to run a single set of tyres for entire race,

[@sams7921]

yep subtitles is a must for this video

[@ParsavagelyEverdream]

I think the missing subtitle at 12:45 is "monsoon" tyre i.e. full wets

[@renchesandsords]

what are the downsides of just having one tyre races? maybe not mandate one set, but allow the cars to be able to push the tyres?

[@MrXaniss]

God I love that new intro

[@leo1fun]

What amazing content

[@aidanhorwitz3914]

shut out, love the 8-bit intro

[@EpicManaphyDude]

love the new intro

[@hhhernandez15]

Good video

[@Ruylopez778]

I know how we can reduce car weight and torque demand... chuck the hybrid and have a simple V6 turbo running on E10

[@gordonn4915]

It would seem easier to “degrade” the KERS every lap after a pit stop. This would stop saving tyres and could be dialed to say force three pit stops at Monaco, but one at Monza.

[@TheApokolypze]

"They are aiming for.. less overtaking.." oh really Chainbear? 3:57

[@leokaravasili9649]

surely if they all start on the same tyre with one that degrades more then its going to have less overtaking as the car in dirty air suffers more than if they had little deg and were on a more even playing field...?

[@okamileek006]

Without tyre deg there is no strategy, and same deg tyres would also make overtaking very difficult since the dirty air pushes you back and you can't call a strategic undercut

[@aidanquiett668]

@@okamileek006 Tell that to endurance racing series. You can have dozens of strategy types without needing to use terrible tires

[@bengarcia496]

love that guitar in the intro.

[@thenoobsays]

but it's not a guitar

[@theliberator0390]

@@thenoobsays synths always tricks people into thinking it is a guitar

[@Polotoed]

Will you play the F1 Fantasy this season?

[@iankaranja7765]

"Bono, my tyres are gone"

[@adamhavercamp]

Did you predict the Google Chrome wheels for McLaren in the thumbnail?

[@MoonSafariFilms]

interesting video

[@solsticefr9142]

Could somebody please expand on the Schumacher/Ferrari/Bridgestone note ?

[@chainbear]

Ferrari had a special relationship with Bridgestone where they'd do lots and lots of private years together so they were extra developed for Ferrari

[@zgrb]

It’s interesting to me where the FIA wants relevance to road cars and where it doesn’t. Power units are being pushed towards more efficient hybrid units to mimic road cars, same with the wheel size, but they want tires that are (objectively) worse, which is obviously not relevant to road cars. I hope there is more consistency in this regard.

[@upperjohn117aka]

Well having high degrading tires forces different strategies

[@aidanquiett668]

@@upperjohn117aka So does having different power systems. And if the FIA wants to lower costs, maybe making it so teams dont go through a dozen tire sets a race would be a good idea

[@sriharig6743]

The question mark in the subtitles at 12:42 mean 'smooth', fyi

[@bhatkrishnakishor]

Why not introduce max allowed laps for a set of tyres? Softs should be the best tyre but least amount of max laps allowed, mediums durable than softs but slower, so on and so forth. Also, have more leniency on the range of tyre pressure for strategy to take part in the race.

[@TheUnkown223]

Are you making an F1 Fantasy league?

[@SeanMather]

In the era of the sustainability, it is an egregiously bad thing to design tires that degrade as fast as F1 tyres do. Let me propose a more environmentally friendly idea. What if teams are allotted a set number of long degrading tyres for the season, ones that can be used over multiple race weekends. As the tyres degrade, they have the performance characteristics of the current tyres, wearing from hard to soft. Keep the rule to be that they must use 2 sets of tyres per race. Now the strategy isn’t fresh vs old, it’s how and when you use your allotment. Do you hold a fresh set back till the end of the season, to use at a key moment? Or do you burn through the highest performance part of the tyres early to gain a lead in the championship? Do you go 2 stops to minimize the wear on any one set of tyres? Do you take a grid penalty if you need to go over your allowance or try to squeak out one more race? Seems like it could still be just as exciting, but without wasting as many tyres.

[@snonsig2688]

All tyres used in F1 are recycled and AFAIK used in the production of new batches

[@aidanquiett668]

@@snonsig2688 Recycling is the last option. Reduce, reuse, recycle. Recycling can be great, but its fundamentally flawed and it uses way more resources then simply reducing production does

[@kiereluurs1243]

'Deliberate degradation' is new to me, and SILLY. Besides the phenomenon itself, also the WASTE and the RUBBLE on the track.

[@bw8818]

Only Hamilton and Verstappen go on 2 stop frequently coz they pull 30 seconds ahead of the field quite quickly and they need not hit the traffic, overtake other cars which is not backmarkers and concentrate on closing down the race leader.

[@JaniLaaksonen91]

Drinking game: take a shot everytime the word "degradation" is mentioned!

[@Fred_P]

There are several faults in the captions, for example "[??]" should be "monsoon tyre" 12:42 and "new cars" should be "mule cars" at 16:49. As well as "they aim for less overtaking" in the voice over at 3:56, but correct in the captions. But as usual this comment will fall on deaf ears.

[@MarcusBritish]

12:43 subtitle "[??] tyre". Methinks he says "muscle tyre".

[@Tiaanzo]

Why? I think going flat out for 10-15 laps is better (knowing your tyres will only last that long) than going slower to stretch the tyre life/grip levels so you don't need to pit or only need to pit once. Tyre management should only be when you don't have another set for the race. That is why you have Soft, Medium and Hard compounds to push on the softer compounds and manage the race on the harder ones. The race should be managed (i.e. fuel, tyres, positioning etc.) not the tyres to stay in position on track

[@seanonraet8327]

The proof obviously says otherwise because the old cars had a tough time overtaking, hopefully it will be better with the new ones

[@KomboAndy]

So this are sprint tyres not marathon tyres...?

[@vincenzoluigizarrella8592]

Top quality content! *Please Pirelli bring back ultrasofts🙏💜

[@sparkieT88]

Tires are a big talking point in nascar this year too.

[@clarencealucho6826]

We should have one race in the calendar where tires are not an issue 😅