FIA change sporting regulations to boost Pirelli

Further to my post the other day about the action on track being more limited this season due to the wear rates on the Pirelli tyres and the limited tyre allocations, the FIA World Motor Sport Council has today adapted the Sporting Regulations to generate more track action and to give Pirelli a chance to evaluate new tyres.

They have also said that a decision on whether the Bahrain GP can be rescheduled will not be made before May 1, on which date the Bahrainis need to let the FIA know whether a race can be run in 2011.

With no testing allowed from this Saturday - the end of the last official F1 test in Barcelona - until November when the Young Drivers test takes place, this move means that Pirelli can evaluate new compounds and constructions, which they can feed into the range at a later date if necessary.

This will certainly help with the evolution of a super soft tyre, as the ones produced thus far haven't been on the money.

A statement from the FIA today said,

"At certain events, one additional specification of dry weather tyre may be made available to all teams for evaluation purposes. Teams will be informed about such an additional specification at least one week before the start of the relevant event. Two sets of these tyres will be allocated to each driver for use during P1 and P2, and any such tyres must be returned to the tyre supplier before the start of P3.

"One additional set of ‘prime’ specification tyres may be made available to all drivers. Teams will be informed about such an additional set at least one week before the start of the relevant event. In this instance, the additional set will be available for use during P1 and P2. One set of ‘prime’ tyres must then be returned to the tyre supplier after P1, and two further sets of ‘prime’ and one set of ‘option’ specification tyres returned before the start of P3."

So the change is that there will be a second set of hard tyres available for each car for use on Friday, which means more track action for fans to enjoy and more set up time for drivers and teams, especially on their only real 'test' opportunity on Fridays for new components.

There is also a change to the Safety Car rules as follows:

"During a safety car period the pit exit light will remain green for the duration, unless the race is subsequently suspended.

Other than when the safety car has been asked to use the pit lane, no car may enter the pits while the safety car is deployed unless it is for the purpose of changing tyres."