Pirelli believes Formula 1 fans are still confused about the new tyre graphic added to broadcasts this year.

The Tyre Performance graphic, which was introduced during the Japanese Grand Prix, shows percentage values describing the performance of a driver’s tyres. It is produced by F1 and created using publicly-available data, not information supplied by Pirelli.

The manufacturer’s head of F1 and car racing Mario Isola is concerned the graphic still isn’t fully understood by fans.

“What they want to show is the performance life of the tyre,” he said. “And the performance life of the tyre is an interesting number because the idea is to give the spectator the feeling [whether] a car can fight with another car, what [might] happen in a few laps’ [time]?

“The performance life of the tyre is also influenced by the pace management. So if for any reason a driver that has 30 percent of performance life in the tyre realises that he will have degradation of the tyre in a few laps he can drive the car in a way that reduces this degradation.

“That means that the 30 percent stay can stay as 30 percent for a number of laps. That’s probably the most difficult part to explain to spectators.

“Everybody has in mind that you start from one hundred percent and you finish at zero percent. But it’s not linear.”

Isols believes fans expect the a drivers’ ‘tyre performance’ value would fall every lap. “But the reality is that this curve can be different if you are in free air, if you follow another car, if you are pushing with the level of fuel, with the energy that you’re putting into the tyre.”

F1 said it made improvements to the graphic after Pirelli described it as “misleading” following the Suzuka race. However Isola believes it needs to be simplified further.

“If you remember the first time at Suzuka we had the graphic on the screen, it was a bit of a surprise because in our understanding it was related to the wear life. Then we had meetings where they explained the system and it is clear that is related to the performance life.

“The next step is to understand how to give this information in a way that is easy, on one side and also is telling you exactly what is going to happen.”

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2019 F1 season