Tyre boss unfazed by well-worn questions

His company has faced much criticism over tyre issues in the past few Formula One races, especially during June's British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

But Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery was relaxed when facing similar queries from the 350-strong crowd at the Formula 1.101 Innovation Talk at the Nanyang Technological University on Wednesday.

He even rewarded one of the students who asked about the Silverstone incident with a pair of tickets to this weekend's SingTel Singapore Grand Prix at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, courtesy of the local race organisers.

responding to a question about criticism that the British Grand Prix was decided by tyre blowouts and pit-stops instead of drivers' performances, the Briton said: "We're only doing what we are asked (about the number of pit-stops).

"Look at what happened in Monza - it was a onestop race and you should see the number of complaints we've got, like 'Oh my God it is back to boring racing'.

Short memories

"People have very short memories, and having races like Monza show people what it was like for many years. We can go that way or we can have races like Germany and Hungary, which were known historically as really boring races.

"You've got to take the comments with a pinch of salt."

Five drivers, including Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton, suffered tyre blow-outs at Silverstone, after which the drivers threatened to boycott the German Grand Prix the following weekend if the tyre manufacturer did not improve the safety of its products.

Following its investigations, Pirelli concluded that the teams were using the tyres incorrectly, but made modifications to the tyres in time for the Nuerburgring race.

Defending champion Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari's Fernando Alonso also suffered punctures during practice at the Belgian Grand Prix last month, which Hembery attributed to track debris.

In his presentation on Wednesday, the charming Bristol City fan said the Italian company was tasked by the race series, since becoming the sole F1 tyre supplier in 2011, to bring more excitement to the sport by providing tyres that would result in more pit-stops.

Asked if he'd like to see an end to the monopoly his company enjoys in F1, Hembery replied that using a single tyre supplier was a cost-cutting measure and that it would be difficult to judge the performance of different tyres on different cars.

To laughter from the audience, he added: "When somebody wins, it's always back to the driver and the car; when anyone loses, it's only the fault of the tyres.

"You'd have a very tough life trying to convince the public about the performance of the tyre." Pirelli will provide super-soft and medium compound tyres for the Singapore Grand Prix this weekend, on a low-speed, high-downforce circuit with 23 turns.

Sauber's head of track engineering, Tom Mc- Cullough, was confident the tyres will hold up in the street circuit.

He said: "This circuit does not have very long straights, very high speeds or very high-speed corners, so the tyres are well within their safety limits.

"We're confident of the tyres - the constructions and limits that we're operating to are pretty safe.

The biggest risk here is hitting the walls and damaging the tyres externally."

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