Horner: Tyres are a mystery

Tuesday 12th June 2012

Horner: Tyres are a mystery

Horner: Tyres are a mystery

Red Bull boss Christian Horner admits that his team haven't yet quite come to terms with the Pirelli tyres in what has been a "complex" season.

The team gambled on Sebastian Vettel's ability to last 54 laps on one set of tyres in Canada, a move that backfired as the RB8 started losing ground tremendously as the tyres faded with ten laps to go. Such was the dire condition of the tyres, the team decided to pit the German with only seven laps left in the race.

While the decision to one-stop did not work for Red Bull - or Ferrari - the Lotus of Romain Grosjean and Sergio Perez's Sauber both made the strategy work for them as they claimed second and third spot respectively.

With this in mind, Horner admits that he hasn't quite got the mystery of the Pirelli tyres worked out yet.

"It was a difficult race, and we've quite a few things to reflect on and try to understand," mused the Briton.

"Ultimately we salvaged some reasonable points, beating Fernando.

"Lewis adopted a two-stop (strategy) and made it work. At one stage it looked like quite a bold thing to give up the lead.

"It was a very difficult strategic race. Things are complex (at the moment), that's for sure. Strategically it's very difficult to read.

"You are trying to make judgements through a race based on the feedback you have from your own car and the information you have around you, and it's tricky.

"Two guys that went on a one stop, one started 15th (Sergio Perez for Sauber) and the other at the back end of the top 10 (Lotus' Romain Grosjean) and they came out third and second.

"We qualified on pole, were in the lead on lap 15, yet ran into trouble seven laps before the end," he added.

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