01-03-2016, 17:13
Towards the end of last year, Pirelli talked about wanting to re-introduce a so-called “cliff” into the tyre’s behaviour - a sudden drop-off in performance after a certain amount of life. The idea being to try to promote more pit stops. But it doesn’t seem to have worked. Teams and drivers reported after the first test that this sudden cliff did not seem to exist.
Lewis Hamilton said earlier: "There’s not much of a cliff to be honest; they behave very similarly to last year. There is a little bit more deg maybe on the left-front tyre but generally it’s nothing exciting or nothing new that will make a difference." Hamilton went as far as to say he “preferred last year’s” tyre.
Renault’s Kevin Magnussen said he could feel the layer of harder rubber that has been inserted into the tyre to create the cliff - but that it did not have the desired effect: “There is a new hard layer on the inside of the tyre which is a bit strange and takes some getting used to. When you hit that, the balance changes a lot. I didn’t really feel a cliff. You just feel a massive difference in balance.”
Lewis Hamilton said earlier: "There’s not much of a cliff to be honest; they behave very similarly to last year. There is a little bit more deg maybe on the left-front tyre but generally it’s nothing exciting or nothing new that will make a difference." Hamilton went as far as to say he “preferred last year’s” tyre.
Renault’s Kevin Magnussen said he could feel the layer of harder rubber that has been inserted into the tyre to create the cliff - but that it did not have the desired effect: “There is a new hard layer on the inside of the tyre which is a bit strange and takes some getting used to. When you hit that, the balance changes a lot. I didn’t really feel a cliff. You just feel a massive difference in balance.”
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