• Canadian Grand Prix

Pirelli delays introduction of new rear tyres

Pirelli has decided to delay the introduction of a new construction of tyre © Sutton Images

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Pirelli will not race with its revised rear tyres at the Canadian Grand Prix, opting to give the teams a chance to use them in Friday practice before a planned full introduction at the British Grand Prix.

After a series of delaminations at the Bahrain and Spanish Grands Prix, Pirelli proposed a change to the belt material of the rear tyres to solve the issue. The plan was to switch from a steel belt, introduced at the start of the year in pursuit of performance, to a Kevlar belt similar to the tyres used last season.

However, Pirelli has not received unanimous support from the teams ahead of Canada and has offered a compromise in the form of extra tyres on Friday on order to allow the teams to test the changes first. Each driver will have one extra set of the revised tyres which will have to be handed back at the end of the day.

"We want to get rid of the delamination that we've found is caused by cuts in the tyres that were debris-induced, which created a weak spot in the tyre that caused overheating," Paul Hembery said in Monaco. "We've been able to replicate that now in our laboratories and internal testing and we believe the solution we have will completely resolve that."

But he said it had been difficult to get the teams to agree to the changes. "It risked changing the dynamic of the tyre, in terms of shape and deformation for example, so you can imagine there have been a number of teams that have been extremely vocal about wanting dramatic changes and there are a number of equally vocal teams that want absolutely no changes."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.