Hamilton Hits at Pirelli Tires for Making F1 Slow

Lewis Hamilton has openly criticized the new tires developed by Pirelli for the 2011 Formula 1 season. And we know he isn't the only one doing it – basically the entire F1 field, with few exceptions, have had some negative comments on the 2011-spec compounds – but the 2008 F1 champion brought a new dimension to it.

According to the McLaren racer, the new tires by Pirelli are not only incredibly degradable, but also very slow in the sense that it dramatically increases lap times. At least that's how the data on the new tires reads when looking at the recent testing in Barcelona.

“I did (a) run the other day and it was painfully slow, it really was. Just not exciting, to be honest,” said Hamilton in a recent interview with Great Britain's The Guardian.

Additionally, Hamilton revealed that only 9 laps into his stint with the Pirelli tires, he was already forced to run “down to the canvas”. Under the circumstances, multiple pit stops in 2011 may very well refer to 4 or even 5 such walks down the pit lane, rather than 2 or 3 as initially predicted by the Pirelli officials.

Hamilton's comments come to actually contradict team principal Martin Whitmarsh, who recently confirmed his public support for Pirelli. And the British official is not the only one backing the new tire strategy in F1 – aside from Bernie Ecclestone of course – as Marussia Virgin's technical boss Nick Wirth also thinks big of the new compounds.

“We want good and safe tyres, but with low durability for the races in the interests of the show,” Wirth was recently quoted as saying by Spanish newspaper AS.