Haas driver Romain Grosjean believes Formula 1 tyre supplier Pirelli needs to produce rubber which can operate in a wider window, and which are easier to warm-up.
After several years of manufacturing tyres which degraded quickly and limited pure pace, Pirelli has produced wider, more durable tyres for 2017, in line with revised Formula 1 regulations.
However, drivers have displayed struggles at operating the tyres effectively, believing there to be a narrow window in which to extract maximum performance, while warm-up has also been an issue.
Sebastian Vettel labelled the post-Safety Car restart at the recent Monaco round as “really tricky”, while Daniel Ricciardo, who brushed the wall, compared the tyres to “concrete blocks.”
Grosjean, eighth in Monaco, is hopeful that Pirelli can address the situation.
“During the last race I did 40 laps on the ultrasoft, which is really more of a qualifying tyre,” he said.
“It should be able to do some amount of laps, but not as much as that.
“We’re asking to get tyres with a better warm-up, be better after the Safety Car and to go faster. We believe that the cars are able to go faster.”
On finding the right operating window, Grosjean said: “I do believe that not a lot of people are 100 percent sure how to get there. It’s very tricky. It’s something we need to work on with Pirelli.
“We need to make it easier, as we’re spending so much time getting the tyres to work, it’s a bit frustrating not being able to work on car balance.
“Ideally, we’d like a wider window, and pretty much more in common between the compounds, so when you change compounds it doesn’t just fall off in the performance.”
Grosjean’s Haas team-mate Kevin Magnussen echoed the Frenchman’s sentiments.
“The grip is there when the tyres are working, it’s just that it’s pretty difficult to get them into the right window because they’re quite hard,” he said.
“Monaco was extreme because it’s a very low-speed track and tyre energies are very low, which makes it very hard to get the tyre working.
“Canada is going to be a little bit better, but still I think it’s going to be a challenge.”
