P. Hembery: Pit stop number will decrease this season
At press conference in Turin, head of Pirelli sports department, Paul Hembery told a little bit about the wider tires that will be used by the 2017 Formula One cars.
P. Hembery: ''Compared to the last year, the difference will be impressive, it is one of the most serious challenges in Formula 1. We learned how 2017 cars will look only in July. In the beginning, we worked only with simulators, but in August, we began testing on the track.''
''I predict that there will be less stops this season. In Barcelona, cars will go 5 seconds faster per lap than back in 2015. Depending on which track is racing on, the time differences between 2015 and 2017 will be from 2 to 6 seconds per lap. As cars will be a lot faster, drivers will want to do more than possible. This will lead to mistakes and overtakes. Formula One will surely become driver's championship.''
New tires will not overheat as fast as they used before - the range of optimal temperature will increase, which will decrease tire wear and degradation. Which means, there will be less stops. I'm expecting the time difference between tire compounds to be less than a second. Last year, depending on the track, the difference was 1.5 seconds.''
