Pirelli may be forced to look into their compounds after drivers complained of the "marbles" hitting them during Sunday's Malaysian GP.

The Sepang offered an interesting test of Pirelli's tyres as the heat and humidity caused severe degradation. This created "marbles", pieces of discarded rubber, that hit - and even hurt - the drivers.

"There are a lot of marbles out there, maybe too many. Come the end of the race, it gets difficult to overtake," Paul di Resta, who finished P10, told The Telegrah.

"The other big thing is that they kept coming up and hitting me in the hands. In the middle of a fast corner, these lumps of rubber would be smacking into my hands as I turned the wheel.

"Rubber is not the softest material and if it got you in the right place, it could hurt. It happened quite a few times over the weekend and as you go into the corner, the rubber runs across the tyre and flicks up."

Di Resta's comments, though, were new to Pirelli's motorsport director Paul Hembrey.

"I have not had those comments from the top three but if it's an issue, we will have to confront it," he said.

"There was a lot of overtaking though. We will have to analyse all the overtaking manoeuvres but the marbles have to go somewhere and that is a difficulty for us."

However, the only solution to this problem - and Jenson Button's complaints that the tyre wear made for confusing strategies - is to build more durable tyres. And that would lead to one-stop racing.

"We either go back to a one-stop strategy, if that's what they feel is better, or we continue to do what we have been asked to do," Hembrey added.

"I don't have a magic wand. I have been told it was the most exciting race for a long time. If there weren't any marbles, would it be any more exciting?

"People don't want to go back to a procession. We have been asked to do something and we have tried to do it. I thought it was good for the show but if people think it's not right, we will change it.

"It's hard for us - we are in the middle. I am not being defensive because we are doing what we have been asked to do. Everyone needs to decide.

"The only way we could create the forced strategy was to make the tyres wear. That's what we have had to do. If they want to go in another direction, they will have to tell us.

"If I am going to be criticised for making the races more exciting, I don't know what to say."

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YEa they need to clean that sh1t up. I think it makes drivers quite hesitant to make a move around someone if they have to go outside the line and muck through that garbage.

 

They need to get over it personally, racing drivers have had to deal with marbles for 30+ years and only recently during the bridgestone period have the F1 drivers had it so good with ultra consistent and wearing tyres.... Saw multiple over takes through the marbled area towards the end of the race on Sunday and drivers making up gobs of time on drivers on older tyres so no problems from me as that is how the racing tyres should perform... last year we have drivers who could of done whole race on on set and not loose enough time to make pitting for new tyres worth while, that to me is not what you want from a race tyre and what we had when multiple companies were able to compete...

 

The horror! A stray piece of rubber might blemish the shine on the 87 pieces of safety gear between them and said rubber.

Please. Try it on a bike sometime, you bunch of crybabies.

 

Am I wrong in thinking these could be similar to a rubber bullet at high speeds?

 

No, you're not wrong thinking that.

 

wear padded gloves if your ****** hurts so much

coddled spoiled children

 

pvssies.

 

The driver all have crash helmets and a carbon fiber shield around them. What're they complaining about?!

 

Di Resta is just whining because he only finished P10.

Pirreli does need to do something about the wear though. Seems like you can't do more than 20 laps and have enough grip to be competitive.

Fix the tyres and bring back refueling After that, F1 will almost be perfect again, at least until Bernie or FIA stick their noses in it again