Mercedes team principal Ross Brawn thinks it is pointless for drivers and teams to get frustrated by the tire situation in Formula 1, because the most important thing is dealing with it to achieve success.
With most teams admitting that they not yet fully understand how to extract the best performance from Pirelli's 2012 tires, there is a high chance that race results will remain mixed up for now. Although the influence of the tires has led to criticisms of Pirelli from some quarters – particularly Michael Schumacher – Brawn reckons that the only proper response for teams is to keep focused on making themselves better.
"You either can complain about it, or keep your head down and do a better job than anyone else," he explained. "That is what we are faced with, because the tires will not change dramatically this year."
Speaking about how well his team understands the tires, Brawn said: "We know what is needed, we just don't know how to achieve it. Don't get them too hot and don't let them get too cold – and that is really it.
"The difficulty is you have four tires on the car and you go to a circuit like Barcelona – where the left one is getting too hot and the right one is getting too cold – and that is down to track configuration. You need to work out how to get the tires to work well together, and look at how the tires work around the track to get the best balance.
"What is fascinating is seeing cars for some of the race look very ordinary, and then suddenly they come into the window and become quite extraordinary. It is a very interesting challenge."
Although the high-degrading tires are proving difficult to figure out, Brawn believes the situation is much better than what F1 had in 2010, when Bridgestone's rubber lasted too well.
"I think in 2010 there was an argument that it almost got too predictable – the tires were too well understood and they were too consistent, so there was a certain predictability about how the tires were going to behave," he said. "It was relatively easy to get to know how they were going to work, and I remember there was a time there were comments about the predictability of the tires and the need to shake it up a bit.
"Getting it exactly right for everybody is a pretty difficult task, but I think teams will get better as the season goes on. We have made progress in understanding how the tires work, but we haven't completely got on top of it. Each race provides another piece of the jigsaw to get a better understanding."