Grosjean: F1 tyre operating window "ridiculous"
Romain Grosjean has labelled the narrow four degrees Centigrade operating window he has experienced with Pirelli's 2017 Formula 1 tyres as "ridiculous".
The Romain Grosjean Haas F1 Team VF-17 is wheeled back into its garage
Andrew Hone / Motorsport Images
With Formula 1 drivers braced for a tough time at the Canadian Grand Prix in trying to get their tyres working well for qualifying, Grosjean has expressed some frustration at the situation.
He says that the contrast between how cars feel when the tyres are operating well compared to when they are not in the right window is huge.
"It is actually really fun driving these cars when everything is working," he said. "But when it is not, it is not fun.
"In Monaco I was really asking myself about this at one point. During free practice I had no grip and never managed to get the front in the window. It was like: 'This is not fun. I am going into a corner and thinking, am I really going to make it or hit the wall?'
"And then in qualifying, I eventually got in – and I thought that was fun, now we are playing. It changed so much.
"On the data, it changed just 2-3 degrees, but feeling wise it is such a big difference and you can see the steering track, you can see the speed, you can see everything – and yeah, it is working."
Having nearly got knocked out in Q1 in Monaco after not getting his tyres operating well, Grosjean says he is at a loss to fully explain how his form suddenly transformed to help get him through to Q3.
"I never had them in Q1, I didn't know where I was," he said. "I knew I wasn't in the top ten because I could see going up to Casino that I wasn't in the top ten, but I didn't know I was that bad.
"Then the last lap it just got a bit better, maybe the rears and the balance got better, and then in Q2, eventually on my second set of tyres, I had a strong out lap, the tyres went in and we were straight away fast.
"Then in Q3, I pushed a bit too much on the rears and lost the rears. So the window was literally four-degrees, which is ridiculous."
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