Pirelli defends 'marbles'

Ever since Pirelli announced they were returning to Formula One for 2011 they have received a lot of criticism.

Considering a tyre manufacturer is used to creating durable and safe tyres for road cars, Pirelli were given a brief to create a tyre with high degradation which would create an unpredictably to tyre strategy in the sport.

They have achieved this aim with their PZero tyres, however the discarded rubber that the tyres create have received criticism.

“You can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs, or, in the case of Malaysia, rubber. The rubber ‘marbles’ on the track are a natural consequence of the increased degradation that has led to more exciting races: all that rubber has to go somewhere, just as it has always done in the past. Pirelli’s Motorsport director Paul Hembery told formula1.com.

“Having said that, we’re here to serve the teams’ best interests and we're looking at ways of reducing some of the deposits in the future. But that’s not going to change our fundamental philosophy: we want to give racing back to the racers.”

The marbles left behind in Malaysia were reportedly different to those previously witnessed in winter testing, during lower temperatures.

In winter testing in Barcelona and Jerez the tyres were degrading by leaving large strips of rubber on the track.

However due to the Bahrain test being cancelled ahead of the opening round of the previously scheduled Bahrain Grand Prix, Pirelli hadn't been able to test the tyres in a warmer climate and the result was was smaller pieces of rubber that could get picked up by the hot sticky tyres of cars when they drove off the racing line and this will be a concern for the drivers.

'There is some concern for places like Canada, Singapore, Monaco, that you catch a lapped car, they let you past, you go inside, you take some marbles and then on the next corner you miss the braking point and you go straight. Fernando Alonso told Autosport Magazine after the race on Sunday.

'Malaysia was a very wide circuit, and you can come back to the track, but there will be some difficulties in some narrow tracks. We need to be careful and we need to get used to these new things as well.'

The weather is expected to be a lot cooler at China's Shanghai circuit this weekend in comparison to Malaysia's Sepang, which should help the tyres which will result in less marbles.