Drivex Eurocup-3 driver George Zhuravskiy has expressed concerns that tyre sets delivered by Hankook since last year have varied in quality and said this has already affected results from the series’ non-championship Aragón winter round.

By Juan Arroyo

Zhuravskiy said the quality of tyre sets in Eurocup-3 had been inconsistent since series supplier Hankook’s factory plant in Daejeon, South Korea, was destroyed by a fire in March of last year.

Speaking to Feeder Series about his pre-season observations ahead of Eurocup-3’s 2024 season opener at Spa next week, Zhuravskiy said that some tyre sets were of higher quality than others, effectively skewing the pace – and thus results – of several drivers.

“Due to [the fire], I don’t know what happened, but the quality varies from tyre set to tyre set. I can tell you for sure, if the championship does not solve this issue, I will never be able to tell you where I am,” the Drivex driver said.

Zhuravskiy raced on Hankook tyres last year in Spanish F4 as well as in the final two Eurocup-3 rounds, all of which he contested with Drivex. This Eurocup-3 season is his first full campaign at the Formula Regional level.

He cited the results from last month’s winter round at Motorland Aragón, where 14 drivers were present, as proof of the issues. “In practice, I was P6, almost in the top five, very consistently. Then in qualifying, qualifying one, it was 10th. Then qualifying two, it was a disaster, I was 12th.

Zhuravskiy’s fastest lap across those sessions was a 1:55.337, set in the first practice session. The Drivex driver’s quickest laps in the two qualifying sessions were a 1:55.457 and a 1:55.525.

“There’s no correlation between the practice sessions and the qualifying sessions, but I can tell you for sure that this is not Formula 1. Everyone is driving almost at their best in practice. This sort of difference, it’s very unclear, but the tyre sets make a huge difference in this championship.

“It’s just really annoying, to be honest, because I feel like there’s some that are able to understand which tyre sets are good and bad before actually putting them on, I have this suspicion. Unfortunately, it’s just a bit random for us.”

Zhuravskiy said the championship’s organising body – which is partly composed of competing teams – had been made aware of the issues and that multiple teams had pressured for a fix during internal meetings.

Feeder Series understands that there were several complaints from teams to series organisers about the varying quality of tyre sets but that none came after pre-season testing in Spa-Francorchamps. The series said it had worked with Hankook to resolve the instances in which lower quality tyres were delivered.

“It’s a big issue for the championship,” Zhuravskiy said. “I feel like if they don’t get [the tyre problems] fixed, it’s just not fair. It’s a bit of a disaster in reality because tyres must be the same. Here, it’s quite clear just from the jumps in performance that you get.

“Sometimes, you can put a new tyre and not even improve, which is not even due to track conditions. Track conditions can be even better. Everyone could be improving and you’re not. That happens often.

“That’s not only me [affected on track], that’s many people. There’s no point in naming. [Among] most people who I talk to within my team, there’s a whole consensus about this, that this is for sure what’s happening.”

Zhuravskiy questioned why Hankook had remained tyre supplier for 2024 despite the ongoing issues.

“If they’re not able to provide us fair tyres for everyone, why would they take this on? Maybe it was better for them to admit … ‘We have these issues now, maybe it’s better for us to step back’. I understand it’s business, but it’s also the careers of young drivers that are at stake here,” the 17-year-old said.

“The technical side of the car varies so much that from weekend to weekend, there’s performance jumps in the teams, but it definitely shouldn’t be the case in the tyres. That’s one thing I can tell you for sure. It’s not a good look.”

The series will use a lone tyre compound per weekend this season, abandoning the two-compound approach used last year.

Zhuravskiy suggested the new compound will be “even softer than last year’s” soft compound, which he claimed could lead to tyre performance suddenly dropping off after a certain amount of degradation at some tracks.

But he also said that because of the Aragón circuit’s low-degradation nature, the winter round in March wasn’t representative of the potential performance changes.

“Aragón, Red Bull Ring, I would say [there is] not a lot of degradation. [They are] just tracks full of straights and not a lot of corners, so that’s quite straightforward. I would say these two will be the lowest degradation.

“Barcelona is where people struggle with the tyres. Because I raced in Barcelona, I can tell you, and that was with the old hard [compound]. I don’t know about this new soft, which is even softer.”

At Aragón, where drivers first raced on the new compound, Zhuravskiy put on used tyres from qualifying for the second race. He told Feeder Series he thought he would make it through the race without issues. It was only in the final three laps that the Drivex driver mentioned feeling heavy tyre wear.

“In [Formula Regional], we should have tyres that don’t degrade as much because we need to still find the limit. We still have a point to develop as drivers, so it would be quite beneficial if we could just not think so much about the tyres and just push, push, push,” Zhuravskiy said.

As for his goals for the season, Zhuravskiy said he was targeting a top-three finish in the rookie standings. He will race against six other rookies in 2024 – most notably Spanish F4 runner-up Christian Ho.

“Heading into the rookie season, I’d say I want to fight for rookie podiums every single race. I want to fight for points every single race, but the goal for me is to be fighting for the top of the rookies,” he told Feeder Series.

“I know that there are of course some great people that are rookies in the championship. There’s Christian Ho and there’s Valentin Kluss, but I do expect myself to finish at least in the top three of the rookie championship. That’s the minimum goal for the season, and scoring points consistently is very important for me.”

Header photo credit: Niels Broekema / Dutch Photo Agency