McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh has spoken out about the marked difference between the different tyre compounds and he believes that there should be two mandatory pit stops per race to help spice up the races. The Bahrain GP was one of the most highly anticipated season openers for many years – thanks partly to the larger F1 field, the refuelling ban and the return of Michael Schumacher – however the race failed to sparkle, leading the Sun newspaper to sum the race up as the ‘Bore-rain GP.’
“We were one of three teams, that said we should have two mandatory pit stops because we were worried about one-stopping,” he told ESPN. “I think we have to re-examine that. But I think if we can now push on Bridgestone to have racier [less durable] tyres.
“We need a super-soft tyre that is really going to hurt if you take it to 20 laps. You shouldn’t be able to do that with a super-soft tyre and I think even the prime.
“The tyre [compounds] were much closer in the race than we expected and they determined the spectacle. There was no real serious degradation of the tyres, we started the roll of pit stops because we were trying to get [Lewis Hamilton] ahead of Rosberg and everyone started to come in at that point.
“But otherwise, just based on tyre degradation, we could have run to lap 25 or more on the super-soft tyres. If you can do that on the softest tyre, then the primes are just going to romp through for as long as you like.”
