The year also saw an ultimately aborted effort to create no-blanket slicks for 2024, the successful introduction of a full wet that did work without blankets, a new construction introduced at the British GP to deal with ever-increasing downforce, and an end-of-season request from the F1 Commission to tackle the issue of overheating.
Then there were efforts to improve F1’s sustainability credentials with the alternative tyre allocation – eventually rejected by the teams – and the first attempt at remounting and giving a second life to unused wet tyres.
On top of that was the successful navigation of what could have been a much bigger crisis in Qatar after signs of damage inflicted by kerbs was seen on some tyres.
All of that added up to a busy year for Pirelli and its engineers as the company navigated the challenges that cropped up.
"The overall view is positive,” says Pirelli motorsport director Mario Isola. “We have been able to react to a couple of situations that were not predictable.
“The first one was the increase in performance that we saw at the beginning of the season. And I believe that our reaction was the right one. So to homologate a new construction that we knew was not giving a difference in balance, in performance, in behaviour was the right approach, instead of raising the pressure.
“The second one was in Qatar with the kerbs. And again, it was possible thanks to a good communication together with the other stakeholders to find the right solution.
“Obviously, we have to try to anticipate as much as we can, but sometimes it's not possible or predictable. So what is important in that case is that we find together the right solution.”
Introducing a new construction in the middle of the season is not a straightforward move, as there’s always the risk that it could upset the balance of performance across the field, and help or hinder certain teams.
However it was deemed necessary as Pirelli could see downforce levels increasing in the second year of the regulations.
In-season testing was focussed on readying no-blanket tyres for 2024, rather than specifically on the usual challenge of dealing with rising loads. However as it turned out the no-blanket programme generated an ideal solution.
"Luckily, this new construction was something we were already testing, because it was an idea for the no-blankets tyre,” says Isola. “A first step to design a new construction for a no-blanket tyre was to have a construction more resistant to fatigue at low pressure.
“Obviously you start with much lower pressure compared to a blanket situation, and then you increase the pressure. So you have this transitory phase that must be protected.
“So we started to use this material at the end of last year. And so it was something that we had in our pocket already. Because of this, it was less difficult than let's say in a normal situation where you have to react, and maybe you don't have a back-up solution."
When introduced at Silverstone the new tyre had a neutral impact and there were no complaints. It also gave Pirelli a handy compromise heading into 2024.
Usually in-season tyre development is focussed on increasing loads and specifically creating a tyre that will be get the job done all the way to end of the following season.
As this year’s focus was running without blankets Pirelli didn’t have the opportunity to do parallel testing with standard tyres, and thus it has not created a new construction for 2024.
The plan is that the 2023 Silverstone tyre will do 18-months service and be used all the way to next year’s Abu Dhabi GP.
Aside from 2020-’21, when COVID meant no tyre testing and thus no changes, carrying the same construction across two seasons is an unusual situation for Pirelli.
"No, it's not normal,” Isola agrees. “But obviously when you have a new car, the rate of development is bigger at the beginning, then the curve is flattening a little bit.
“We have received the updated simulations from the teams for next year, with an estimation of the loads at the end of next year. Our priority is to analyse this data, to understand what the situation is. They are expecting to have a lower rate of development for next year, so we can cope with the current construction."
The no-blanket testing, inspired mainly by the sport’s ongoing moves towards sustainability, ultimately proved to be a dead end, given that it’s been decided to keep blankets at least until 2025, the final year of the current F1 regulations. However Pirelli’s R&D work and testing has not gone entirely to waste.
"We found new materials and new geometries for the construction that are working quite well,” says Isola. “So for 2025 we will introduce some of the ideas that we had also from the no-blanket tyres.
“That is not 100% true for the compounds, because we have to change the approach. And obviously we have to design compounds with a higher working range to protect the overheating. It was exactly the opposite when we were working to remove the blankets. Obviously, you have a certain working range, and you need to decide where to put this working range.
“If you work for a no-blanket tyre that could work in cold conditions, then you need to go lower with the working range, but then you increase the overheating. In that case, we can move on the other side. So construction-wise, I believe that the job was useful. For the compounds, a bit less."
No-blanket slicks may have been abandoned but the wets, first seen in action at Monaco, proved to be a success.
However, Pirelli is still trying to improve them, while also honing a no-blanket intermediate for possible introduction during the 2024 season.
With that in mind Mick Schumacher recently undertook a two-day dedicated wet session at Magny-Cours with Mercedes, and more running is planned for Barcelona in January.
“We know that we have to improve the extreme wet product, which is something we are doing,” says Isola. “It is working without the blankets, but the level of performance is not at the level we want. And I believe that we can find a good intermediate tyre without blankets.
“We are trying also to run on high severity circuits, because one of the issues that we experience with extreme wet because we are limited to testing in Paul Ricard and Fiorano, and they are both low severity circuits.
“Then when you go to Suzuka or Spa you have a completely different situation. So analysing the behaviour of the extreme wet we found that the lack of performance is mainly due to lack of grip, because of overheating.
“The reality is that you have the blocks that are moving, so you heat the blocks, and heating the blocks, you lose grip.
“And it's important to understand exactly what is causing the lack of performance, and we are testing a modified tread pattern, because with this different approach, I'm sure that we can recover some performance on the extreme wet.”
The intermediate is a different challenge: “We won't modify the tread pattern, because it's working well. But we are looking for a compound with the same characteristics of the current compound, but able to work without blankets.
“If we find a clear step in the direction we want, we will submit a request to the FIA and the teams to homologate a new tyre.
“It's not a safety issue, let's call it a performance issue. But that was a clear request coming also from the drivers. They always try to jump from the extreme wet to an intermediate tyre as soon as they can, because they know the performance is higher.
“And we would like to give them an extreme wet with a proper crossover with the intermediate tyre, so they are not obliged to move to the intermediate tyre too early."
The focus on addressing overheating as requested by the F1 Commission last month has given Pirelli a new challenge for its test programme in 2024.
“Clearly, if the plan was to remove the blankets, we had to focus on warm-up in cold conditions on low severity circuits,” says Isola. “Now the decision is to keep the blankets, so we don't have an issue with the warm-up. We will focus more on reducing the overheating.
“Last year if you remember, the driver comments were quite positive, they said there was much less overheating compared to the 13-inche tyre, we can follow each other, we can push a lot more. And then we steered our development onto the no blankets. So we were fully focused on no-blankets. And we had to change a little bit.”
Isola says that it’s the wake created by cars ahead that has changed over the two years of the current regulations, and led to overheating issues.
“We have a new construction, but we have compounds that are similar to 2022,” he notes. “But now in 2023 drivers were complaining about overheating, and on the same compound, so it means that there was something that was different from last year.
“If last year the overheating was not so impactful, now it is coming from the development of the aero package that is creating different airflow behind the car. I believe that the slipstream is different. So they have some turbulence that is disturbing the downforce when they follow each other.”
For Pirelli the biggest news of this year was the confirmation in October that the company had won the supply contract for 2025-’27.
That gives the sport continuity into the next set of technical regulations without the extra unknowns that a change of supplier would have added to the mix.
Sustainability was one of the key parameters assessed by the FIA, and Pirelli demonstrated its credentials through Forest Stewardship Council [FSC] certification as well as initiatives such as remounting unused wet tyres that would previously have been scrapped, a process that was trialled in Mexico and Abu Dhabi.
“We wanted to continue,” says Isola of Pirelli’s ongoing commitment to F1. “I believe that in these last 13 years, we have been a good partner of F1, a loyal partner, always trying to satisfy the requests of F1, FIA, the teams, and the drivers.
“And with a level of flexibility that is not common for a bigger company, because the Pirelli is not just a motorsport company, it's not an F1 team.
“In the last 13 years we had so many challenges, different cars, different tyre sizes, different requests, different levels of degradation, new circuits – this year Las Vegas was a big challenge, for example.
“We have always found a way to fulfil our obligations. And I believe that was probably an advantage and one of the reasons why we've been selected.
“And I believe that we have been able to demonstrate our flexibility. We are committed also to work together in order to find the best solutions for the sport. And clearly the best solutions for the sport are the best solutions also for us, because if the sport is successful, we’re investing our money in the right way.”
