Pirelli's top Formula 1 boss has responded to concerns raised by Lewis Hamilton about the plan to ban tyre blankets.
Currently, teams can use the electric-powered warmers to raise the temperature of the tyres while the car is in the garage and on the grid. It helps make sure they are warm enough to provide grip for the cars in the first place.
But they use a significant amount of energy and, amid the sport's efforts to reduce emissions, this is something which F1 chiefs do not like. So the plan is to outlaw them from next season and, in preparation, Pirelli has been developing a new batch of tyres which heat up quickly without the use of the blankets.
Several tests of these new creations have been carried out. Mercedes took part in one several weeks ago, after which Hamilton spoke out against the plan to ditch the tyre warmers and warned it would be "dangerous".
He said: "I have tested them, and there is going to be an incident at some stage. So on safety grounds, it is the wrong decision. You have to drive multiple laps to get the tyres to work. The whole argument is that taking away the blankets will be more sustainable and more green, but we are using more fuel to get more temperature into the tyres.
"What is more concerning is that when you go out, the car is skating around, it is very twitchy, and if someone else is on tyres that are working, you could easily collide with them. It is a pointless exercise."
But Pirelli's motorsport director Mario Isola disagrees with that assessment and has moved to reassure the Mercedes driver that the tyres he tested were not the finished article. He told reporters: " Lewis tested the tyres in Paul Ricard at the beginning of February.
"It was quite cold in that period and clearly we tested some tyres that are not the final version of the tyres that we want to homologate without blankets. The idea to remove blankets is something that we discussed years ago and it is a common thought between the FIA, F1, teams, Pirelli and promoters to achieve carbon neutrality for 2030.
"Any step to make our sport more sustainable is important and one of these steps is to remove blankets, to avoid using electricity to warm up the tyre before we use it. We tested, before the Christmas break, some wet weather tyres, that was also our priority because last year, drivers were not happy about where they were on tyres. We found a new compound that is able to work without blankets.
"We made a comparison with the old tyre with blankets in cold conditions and in all the three different circuits with three different teams and, if I'm not wrong, the five different drivers, the comments were positive. So we are planning to remove the blankets from the wet weather tyre from Imola onwards. That has been authorised by the Formula 1 commission last Wednesday.
"The next step is – and I hope we are successful this year – to find an intermediate tyres that is able to work without the blankets. At the same time we have a development plan for slick tyres."
