MAY 8, 2012

Schumacher refuses to let sleeping tyres lie

Michael Schumacher has followed up his post-Bahrain criticism of Pirelli's F1 control rubber with another pop at the Italian tyres.

Michael Schumacher has followed up his post-Bahrain criticism of Pirelli's F1 control rubber with another pop at the Italian tyres.

Speaking to CNN in the lead-up to this weekend's first European GP of the 2012 season in Barcelona, the seven times champion said: "I just think the tyres are playing a much too big effect because they are so peaky and so special that they don't put our cars or ourselves to the limit.

"We drive like on raw eggs and I don't want to stress the tyres at all, otherwise you just overdo it and go nowhere."

As a concept, driving on 'raw eggs' had more than a few conjecturing as to the precise nature of Schumacher's complaint, and wondering whether 'driving on eggs shells' is perhaps more the term he was looking for.

Pirelli claims that the characteristics of its 2012 tyres are precisely what they have been asked for. Barcelona, meanwhile, will be the first time this year that the company's race selection is two steps apart in the four-tyre dry range, with the soft and hard on offer at the Circuit de Catalunya.

Last year, Ferrari found its chassis unable to generate any heat in the hard compound Pirelli in Spain, after Fernando Alonso made a superb start and led the race on the softer tyre. The home hero will be hoping that the different 2012 rubber and Ferrari's move to pull rod suspension will avert any repeat of 2011.