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Sebastian Vettel accuses teams of influencing Pirelli

Utkarsh Bhatla
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Sebastian Vettel is itching to get onto the track in Melbourne next weekend after having endured a good enough testing in Barcelona.

The new SF71H has performed rather well in testing, seeming to be reliable and fast and now it would be upto Vettel as to how he handles the car and his opponents on track on the 25th.

Also Read: Drivers announce tyre choices for Australian Grand Prix

The drivers have already given out their tyre choices for the first grand prix of the year, and with Pirelli already accused of being too conservative with their compounds last year, they have changed their approach this season.

Blistering was seen on many tyres during testing, and Vettel believes that few of Ferrari’s rivals maybe trying to influence Pirelli a little too much, however, he feels that it is all normal.

Vettel was asked if the blistering could be a big issue during the race to which he calmly replied that all teams would try and influence the tyre manufacturer to suit its cars needs.

Also Read: Sebastian Vettel questions tyre strategies of Mercedes and Red Bull

Apparently teams have asked Pirelli to create softer tyres in order to help speed up their car even more.

“I think it’s quite normal that, after the first days of testing, every team tries to get the tyre supplier in the direction that suits their car best,” Vettel said.

“We think Pirelli has done a good job with their compound selection,” he added.

Vettel also spoke about how Mercedes and Red Bull did not actually do a race simulation on the final day of testing, something that might put them off during the first race.

“Our competitors – Mercedes and Red Bull – used one type of tyres for their race distance simulation, which is something you can’t do in a grand prix.

“This has an impact on the strategies and ultimately on the result.” Vettel added.

Pirelli’s Mario Isola defended Mercedes and Red Bull’s strategy of going through with just medium tyres on the last day, saying that they done soft tyre runs early on in the testing.

Also Read: Pirelli release dates and teams for 2019 Tyre testing

“They were making long runs with many different compounds because they knew the selection only yesterday, last night. Obviously they had a draft but they didn’t know if we were going to confirm the selection or not.

“So they tested medium more than last year but they also tested soft, super-soft. We found long runs on more or less all the compounds, not the hyper-soft.” Isola said.

Do you think teams are right in influencing Pirelli with respect to the tyre compounds?

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