Pirelli stands firm against Red Bullposted in F126 | 04 | 2013

DESPITE FORMULA ONE world champions Red Bull hoisting significant pressure for major changes, Pirelli has stood firm and made just one small tweak to its range.

Red Bull has argued that Pirelli should make its race F1 tyres more durable for the rest of the season.

But after a meeting with all the F1teams, the Italian tyre manufacturer has decided simply to make the 'hard' tyre slightly harder and lower its operating temperature. The move is a bid to prevent the excessive 'graining', seen in the Australia, Malaysia and China races.

The remaining tyre compounds — 'super-soft', 'soft' and 'medium' — remain unchanged.

Despite winning two of the opening four grands prix, Red Bull had argued the deterioration of the Pirelli tyres was holding back the overall performance of the Renault-powered car

After seeing world championship leader, and defending champion, win in Bahrain five days ago, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner had call for change.

"I think the tyres are too on the edge," he said. "Needing to four-stop is a bit extreme."

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Horner comments referred to the McLaren's Jenson Button and Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg had been forced to make four pitstops during the race.

But significantly, eight of the 11 teams asked Pirelli not to change the tyres for the remainder of the season.

"After evaluating tyre performance over the balance of the first four races, we took the decision — in consultation with all of the teams — to change the hard compound from Spain onwards, as we did in Barcelona two years ago when we also introduced a new hard tyre for the rest of the season," Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery said.

"This latest version of the hard compound is much closer to the 2012 tyre, with the aim of giving the teams more opportunity to run a wider range of strategies in combination with the other compounds, which remain unchanged."

And as f1 takes a three-week break ahead of the start of the European campaign, Pirelli revealed the tyres that will be used in the next three races.

Hard and medium will be used in Spain; the streets of Monaco will get the soft and super-soft; and in Canada the medium and the super-soft.

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Jim McGill