Massa: New tires are safer

Felipe Massa

Felipe Massa believes the revised Pirelli tires have proven to be safer than their predecessors after a three-day test at Silverstone.

Ten of the 11 Formula One teams were in action at the British track this past week where they spent three days putting the revised Pirelli tires through their paces.

The new tires feature this year's compounds but last year's construction with none of the drivers suffering any tire delaminations.

And as Silverstone was the track where several suffered blow-outs during June's grand prix, including Massa, the Ferrari driver is much happier with the new tires.

"It seems to me these tires work better, at least compared to what we saw in the race here," he said. "Over the three days, no one had any problems and from the safety aspect, this is the most important thing."

But while the Brazilian has no concerns about the tires delaminating, he is worried that the hard compound will only work in very hot conditions.

"The prototype Hard seemed maybe too hard to race on. I think that in the coming grands prix we could head towards a choice of the softer compounds, because they can work at lower temperatures and last longer.

"Temperature has a significant effect on our car and here for the race for example, it did not help us, but let's see what happens in Hungary, where we can expect hotter conditions. You need a lot of aerodynamic downforce there and let's hope we can find the right solutions to be competitive." Planet F1