Same Story, Different Rubber

"The goal is to continuously set new challenges for the drivers and to ensure that all the teams start the season with a level playing field when it comes to the tyres." Paul Hembery, Pirelli Motorsport director.

On Wednesday, Formula 1's exclusive tyre manufacturers Pirelli unveiled their new range of 2013 tyres. For those of you who recall the Brazillian Grand Prix last year, the teams got a taste of the brand new orange wall tyre to test in free practice, with most teams noticing higher degradation. 

Pirelli made the start of last season unique, producing 7 different winners in the first 7 races. However the teams eventually cracked the code to unlocking less tyre wear and as a result we ended up with Sebastian Vettel boring us all again like he did in 2011. 

This years tyres ensure more pitstops with at least 2 per race. I'm not sure I like this too much. Yes it's all well and good bringing in more pit time to shake up the race, but I don't necessarily like the fact that there's more of a chance to lose a grand prix or position in the pits as opposed to seeing great overtaking on track. Kimi Raikkonen (last season) scored at least a point in every race except China because his tyres wore away on him unexpectedly  Granted this was not entirely Pirelli's fault and I'm no blaming them, but this is an example of how unpredictable they were and how they changed races. Raikkonen dropped from 2nd to 13th.

All tyres now have softer compounds, this means softer sidewalls and stronger shoulders, producing faster thermal degradation. For those who struggle with the technical aspects, this means tyres will reach their peak performance much sooner with Pirelli even quoting they will be half a second quicker than last years.

According to the Formula 1 Official Website the colours still represent the same compounds, with orange replacing silver as the hard wall tyre. I think it was absolutely ridiculous to have both white and silver markings, you couldn't tell the damn things apart!

A lot of fans have a real disdain for Pirelli and I can see why. Even God himself (Michael Schumacher) stated he had a hard time figuring them out. I had no issue with the tyres until Monza last year. What IDIOT decided to use the hard and medium only at the fastest track on the calendar. If you're going to have hard braking points which you do at Monza, for the love of all that is holy, bring compounds that'll wear quicker. Not the hardest you can find. There really is no excuse I don't care how technical or fancy anyone puts it.

I also found it interesting that each tyre has it's own individual bar code which acts as its 'identification' so the FIA can keep track and note who's using which tyre. Teams get 6 sets of the harder compound and 5 sets of the softer compound to use during a racing weekend.