Pirelli Finds No Anomalies, Backs FIA in Tyre Probe

Pirelli reports no issues with McLaren tyres, yet commits to supporting FIA’s ongoing investigation into alleged irregularities.

“Red Bull has requested an investigation from the FIA, accusing McLaren F1 of cooling its tyres by adding water to them. Mario Isola, Pirelli’s Head of Formula 1, has been questioned on the matter and remains sceptical about its feasibility and utility, given the steam that would emerge.

‘The process is quite straightforward in practical terms,’ Isola explained. ‘You have a valve, you add water inside. The functioning of the system, however, is another story. It essentially involves a thermal effect—a heat transfer between the tyre and the rim—which might offer greater consistency or reduce tyre degradation, even if pressure control becomes less effective.’

‘If you have steam inside the tyres, you lose control over pressure, leading to a higher pressure. I’ve heard the story, I’ve tried to understand how it works myself and gathered this information. As for whether anyone has actually done it, that remains a question mark.’

Pirelli has pledged to provide all necessary information to aid the investigation, but Isola explains that he has seen no indication of such a practice in the tyre data recovered from McLaren’s race-used tyres. Indeed, Pirelli’s engineers continuously monitor the tyres throughout each race.

‘I see nothing unusual in the data we have, so I have no proof. It’s now up to the FIA to decide what action to take and to inform us if we can support it, because ultimately, the only thing we can do is provide our support.’

Rain tyres under renewed criticism

Following the postponement of yesterday’s qualifying session due to water on the track, the debate around wet tyres has resurfaced prominently. Isola concedes that the full wet tyres are not performing adequately and expresses a hope for swift improvements.

‘It’s true that we need to improve the performance of the wet tyre to create a more suitable crossover point with the intermediate tyre. That’s our goal,’ he added.”

“Next year, we will introduce a new wet tyre with some minor adjustments, as, unfortunately, we haven’t had the opportunity to conduct a proper test with the wet tyre on a high-intensity circuit.”

“This is exactly what we’re missing. We’ve made slight modifications to the tread pattern, worked on the construction, and developed a new compound. We’ve identified an improvement, but I can’t say whether it will be sufficient.”

The Italian is uncertain whether a lack of confidence in the tyres led Race Director Niels Wittich to postpone the qualifying session: “I don’t know why Niels decided not to give the green light to the session; I don’t know if it was due to visibility, standing water, the risk of aquaplaning, or any other factor.”

“I haven’t spoken to Niels, so I don’t have any specific information on that. If it’s purely about wet tyre performance, it simply means they go a bit slower, that’s all. So, it’s the quickest of the slower cars setting the fastest time.”

“We are fully aware that we need to improve wet tyre performance. But you can still race with these wet tyres; it’s not that racing is impossible.”