Formula One is set to return to Turkey after almost a decade – and while many fans are looking forward to the sport’s return to the Intercity Istanbul Park circuit, some people in the paddock are concerned about tyre wear.
The track’s infamous turn eight is especially of concern, as the tyres are under enormous strain for several seconds.
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However, Mario Isola, Pirelli’s head of motorsport, has downplayed the risk of tyre failures similar to those we saw at Silverstone earlier this season.
“Talking about the severity of the circuit, we made some simulations and we have an idea. Obviously, the severity of turn eight is something that we know but we now have a good metric for us to compare circuits,” Isola said, as quoted by RaceFans.net.
“So we made a comparison between Istanbul and some other high severity circuits; to give you an idea, in general Istanbul is less severe than Spa and Silverstone.
“ So we are not talking about a circuit that has a higher severity compared to circuits that we know better. The tarmac is new and actually we went there.
“Thanks to our people in Turkey, we had the chance to use a laser and measure the asphalt. It is quite smooth, it is very new.”
Continuing, Isola said he is expecting the tyre wear to be roughly in line with the level of wear we saw a few races ago at Portimao.
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