Romain Grosjean hit out at Pirelli’s “wooden tyres” after practice in Monaco.
In fact, this weekend on the Principality’s streets, the 2014 ‘super soft’ compound is making its debut, alongside the next-softest tyre in the range, the ‘soft’. But the track action was scarce on Thursday, mainly due to the initially damp track in the second session amid a forecast of dry weather for the rest of the weekend. “It’s a shame for the fans,” said Nico Hulkenberg, “but that’s formula one. “It would have been too risky, because some teams don’t have many spare parts,” he told Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport.
Also getting the finger of blame was Pirelli, who according to Lotus driver Grosjean have supplied tyres that are unsuited to the “tricky” 2014 cars around the barrier-lined Monaco layout. “Today, the biggest problem is these wooden tyres,” he smiled to France’s RMC. “Seriously, they do not work very well here. These cars are pretty tricky but they’re sliding a lot and not going very fast around the corners,” Grosjean added. “It is making it even more difficult than in the past, so you really need to concentrate on not making mistakes. You’re driving at 98 per cent and not pushing to 102 per cent to avoid a mistake,” he said.
Championship leader Mercedes’ team boss Toto Wolff defended the F1 ‘show’ of Thursday, insisting it is premature to describe this year’s spectacle as boring. “We need to be careful not to go from depression to manic and back into depression,” he said. “Yes, we’ve had a boring session but does it mean that formula one is boring? I heard different comments after Bahrain so I think you need to look at the whole.”
Image: Lotus F1 Team/LAT
