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F1 set to clamp down on tyre blanket "boost"

Formula 1 tyre supplier Pirelli is hoping to end the practice of teams “boosting” temperatures when tyres are being heated in blankets.

Wet trye blankets

Photo by: XPB Images

Jolyon Palmer, Renault Sport F1 Team RS16 on the grid
Fernando Alonso, McLaren MP4-31
Pirelli tyres
Pirelli tyres
Pirelli tyres

This will mean that, in the future, tyres could be fitted to cars at lower temperatures than is currently the case.

At the moment, under Pirelli's prescriptions, tyres are heated for three hours at 80C, followed by the one-hour “boost” at 110C.

Pirelli now wants tyres to be heated at a constant temperature in between those two figures. The current plan is for teams to experiment with this new system at the Silverstone test, so that Pirelli and the FIA can analyse the results.

“The target is to drop down the starting pressures,” Pirelli's Mario Isola told Motorsport.com. “So if they start with a lower temperature, then, in theory, you should have a pressure increase from starting running. This the first thing.

“Secondly, the management is easier for the teams, and easier for us. All of the system is becoming easier, and when you have a procedure that's easy, it's also better to police.”

Tyres will now emerge from the blankets at a lower temperature: “Probably it will be 90-95, something in the middle, to ensure that we don't have a problem with warm-up.”

Isola confirmed that this may result in drivers having to approach the outlap in a different way in order to get more temperature into the tyres.

“Probably they need to find a different way to warm up the tyre on the preparation lap. Maybe they have to push more to be ready for the first timed lap.

"It depends on the circuit. In Sepang, I cannot imagine that drivers will be obliged to push because of the warm-up. In general, it's not a big issue.”

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