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Gascoyne praises 'bold' Pirelli

ESPNF1 Staff
May 11, 2011 « Herbert expects Schumacher to retire | »
Mike Gascoyne says the Pirelli tyres have created "fantastic racing" © Sutton Images
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Lotus chief technical officer Mike Gascoyne has said that Pirelli deserves credit for risking its reputation in order to make for more exciting races.

Having taken over as tyre manufacturer from Bridgestone over the winter, Pirelli has developed tyres which have a high rate of degradation and lead to more pit stops. The result has been a number of exciting races including more overtaking as drivers struggle with managing their tyres, and Gascoyne wrote in his column for the Daily Telegraph that it was the best change the sport had seen for years.

"We have had 20 different changes over the last 20 years and apart from DRS they all had absolutely no effect on the racing at all," Gascoyne said. "We change the tyre supplier and suddenly we have fantastic racing."

Gascoyne also said that Pirelli has been brave to associate its name with high rates of tyre wear.

"Pirelli are to be applauded for the boldness in going down the route they have," Gascoyne said."We will have occasions now where a driver in the lead will lose the race because of their tyres and the last thing any tyre manufacturer in F1 wants is for a driver to get out of the car and say the tyres were useless and that is why they lost the race. To be producing tyres that add to the show is a ballsy approach and that is of huge credit to Pirelli."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
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