F1 | Banning tyre warmers in 2024: team principals strongly oppose Pirelli's project

Despite Pirelli’s continued push for banning tire warmers starting in 2024, it seems that the teams do not agree with the intentions of the Italian supplier, and the final decision will be made at the end of July. Several drivers and team principals have expressed their intention to continue using tire warmers, as the new tires would still pose a safety risk.

Abolition of Tire Warmers in 2024: Signs Point to Strong Opposition

Recently, GDPA director George Russell described the official banning of tire warmers starting from the next championship as “dangerous.” The motivations behind Pirelli’s proposed initiative would be a clear advantage from a sustainability perspective, while also increasing the on-track spectacle by introducing additional variables.

Pirelli will have until the end of July to demonstrate to the teams that introducing tires without the need for pre-heating is a safe operation. The final decision will be made following the last test session scheduled in Silverstone after the British Grand Prix.

Team principals are against banning tire warmers next year.
“I think we’ll reserve the right to judge (the tires) until we’ve done a test,” said Christian Horner to motorsport.com. “Ricciardo will drive the car during the test, we’ll get feedback from that run, and then I’m sure Pirelli will make the right decision. I don’t think it’s what the drivers want. But my fear in these things is that when you think you’re going to get something simplistic that can improve the races, you end up trying to heat the tires very quickly, in the out-lap and so on, at much higher costs. Everyone has tire warmers, they do their job. I think we should look for sustainable ways to power the tire warmers instead of removing them.”

The team principal of Red Bull tries not to lean too much on the project carried out by Pirelli. Although the signals are more negative than positive, the British man wants to wait for the next on-track test before taking a stance. The new wet tires without tire warmers were tested for the first time in Monaco this year. The slick tires, on the other hand, were recently tested by Mercedes and Ferrari in Barcelona.

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“My point of view is very pragmatic,” said James Vowles. “Show us a tire that, without the warmers, performs well. A tire that performs well both at Spa with five degrees and in Bahrain with 40 degrees, and I’ll be happy to accept it because I think it’s a good step forward.”

“At the moment, we haven’t seen a tire that can do that yet. The test will help us and give us another reference point. Reading between the lines, I don’t think we are in a good place yet. But the direction is good.” – James Vowles pointed out.

Alpine’s team principal, Otmar Szafnauer, also expressed his thoughts: “We had a plan to understand the tires and their quality. Once we’ve done that, I’m sure we’ll make a good decision. It’s really difficult to know, very difficult to answer. I think we now have a fairly decent program. And yes, there are a lot of considerations to be made about the tires. There are other series that don’t have tire warmers, but there comes a point where the essence of Formula 1, whatever it is, maybe tire warmers are a part of it that we should keep.”

Lastly, Mike Krack, the team principal of Aston Martin, analyzed the scenario: “To be honest, I can’t comment because we only tried them at Jerez, but it was a previous generation. We are only watching as spectators what is happening now. I believe the FIA will make the right decision in all fairness. We have wet tires without tire warmers. I think we have an intermediate tire that is almost ready to run without them. And then we’ll see what happens to the slicks.” – he explained.

“But I think we have to trust the FIA to make the right decision for next year. It is up to the FIA to propose whether or not to vote. So the FIA takes the first step. What we need to do is try to have as much information as possible by the time the vote comes, and then make a decision.” – Mike Krack explained.

Finally, it remains to be seen how the situation regarding Bridgestone’s request to return as the sole supplier in 2025 will evolve after their departure from Formula 1 in 2009. In the event of a positive outcome, Pirelli’s ambitious project would obviously be immediately discarded.