Paul Hembery

Formula 1 employee

Vital statistics for Paul Hembery
Nationality	GBR

Paul Hembery has become a very visible member of the paddock since Pirelli took over the sole tyre supply of F1. As the motorsport director for the Italian manufacturer, Paul spends a lot of time liaising with teams and the FIA to monitor the tyres, and tweak the compounds to meet the high standards of safety, durability and racing excitement required.

Biography

Hembery started his tyre career working in research departments, and gradually moved up to a more commercial role. He joined Pirelli in 1992, becoming CEO of their Pacific company. As a more visible member of the team for the Italian tyre manufacturer, he dealt with the supply of rubber to the motorsport world, including the World Rally Championship, starting in 2008.

The experience would come in useful when Pirelli rejoined Formula One as the sole tyre supplier. Paul has been the motorsport director, and spokesperson, for Pirelli since their return in 2011 - fending off criticism from drivers, teams and fans, whilst tweaking the tyres to try and spice up the action as well as retain the elements of safety and structure required for a good race.

Hembery has also been an active Twitter user, engaging with fans and using social media as a soapbox to help air his thoughts on the state of the tyres within Formula One, and rebuking some of the criticisms aimed at the company. He also records audio thoughts after each Formula One race, and has engaged in Question and Answer sessions with fans throughout the season.

Filed under Formula 1 employees

Date	Title
19/11/2014	Race information - Abu Dhabi 2014
05/11/2014	Race information - Brazil 2014
29/10/2014	Race information - United States 2014
08/10/2014	Race information - Russia 2014
01/10/2014	Race information - Japan 2014
17/09/2014	Race information - Singapore 2014
03/09/2014	Race information - Italy 2014
20/08/2014	Race information - Belgium 2014
23/07/2014	Race information - Hungary 2014
16/07/2014	Race information - Germany 2014

Date	Title
25/06/2012	Caught in the middle

Related news

Date	Title
07/03/2017	Paul Hembery changes roles at Pirelli
19/10/2014	Pirelli alter tyre compound choice for Brazil
02/03/2014	Pirelli confirm single step compound difference for Australia
08/10/2013	Pirelli face more criticisms after Pérez’s Korea blowout
17/09/2013	Tyre choices for Korea, Japan and India are revealed
03/07/2013	Pirelli explain the Silverstone tyre failures
29/05/2013	Pirelli to bring test tyres to Canada practice
14/05/2013	Pirelli acquiesce to team tyre demands from Canada onwards
25/04/2013	Pirelli announce a new hard tyre compound for Spain
16/04/2013	Pirelli make last minute change to Bahrain tyre selection

Date	Title
19/10/2014	Double fault
09/07/2014	Full to the rim

Mentions during live coverage

Date	Update
30/04/2017	Paul Hembery, on the grid: "[The drivers] seem to be happier, but it’s a competitive world. You’ve probably heard Lewis struggling a little bit yesterday, they weren’t quite getting the package working perfectly, but overall, they seem to be happier. One-stop, probably getting round to 20-25 laps. The safety car might change that but relatively straight forward."
09/04/2017	Paul Hembery: "It's going to be tough in the cold weather, getting temperature into them. They're probably going to get 14-15 laps out of the intermediates... a lot of question marks though and that should lead to a good race."
28/08/2016	Paul Hembery, Pirelli motorsport boss: "Three, maybe two stops. It’s hot, I think I’ve been here 50 times over the years, and I’ve never seen this temperature. The teams have their free choice of the tyres, a lot of them brought the supersoft, no one was predicting this… I think the majority have a new set of the medium tyres and that’ll be central to the race."
19/06/2016	Paul Hembery, motorsport director at Pirelli, offered up some insight following qualifying yesterday: "The supersoft was used from start to finish, but the fresh asphalt meant that there was little grip on offer, and the track was evolving all the time. As a result it was an exciting session, which suggests also that there could be a high probability of a safety car tomorrow."While a one-stop strategy is clearly the way forward, there are some good opportunities to have on this rapid circuit, which combines the unpredictability of a street circuit with the possibility to overtake and move up the field."
29/11/2015	The tyres on offer today are the soft (yellow) and supersoft (red). Pirelli boss Paul Hembery said on the grid: "Two stop, maybe Kimi’s got an extra option having that new set of supersofts. He’s very good here, maybe that will make the difference for him."
05/10/2014	Pirelli boss Paul Hembery is talking to the BBC about how they tweaked the wet tyres this year to be able to deal with more rain, and displace more standing water. I don't think they can cope with this though.
27/07/2014	Paul Hembery, Pirelli: "Looking at the cars going around on their regrouping lap, they’ve been trying out the full range. Some cars going off, there’s a lot of water. You’ve got a circuit with intermediate conditions for half of it, and full wets for the other. Drivers need to decide in the next twenty minutes… It’s going to be a race they’ll only use the softer tyre, that means people like Lewis have got as many sets as they need. They can really push very hard."
26/07/2014	Pirelli predicted a two-stop strategy for the race tomorrow, but were keen to see what happened in practice. They haven't changed their minds after seeing the sessions yesterday, with motorsport director Paul Hembery saying: "We’re satisfied that the medium and soft tyres are working as we expected them to in Hungary, which is a circuit that can actually work the tyres quite hard despite the fact that it is low speed, especially if the set-up is not quite right. We’re seeing about 1.6 seconds between the two compounds at the moment, and this is likely not to change much, especially as the soft tyre in particular was showing low levels of thermal degradation."
22/06/2014	Soft and supersoft tyres are available for the drivers today, yellow and red sidewalls respectively. Motorsport boss Paul Hembery: "We are set for a very interesting battle tomorrow with eight different teams in the top 10. Two stops is expected to be the most likely strategy but just as was the case in Canada some teams might try a one-stopper, depending on factors such as safety cars."
09/05/2014	Pirelli boss Paul Hembery has leapt to the defence of his company, a position he's very familiar with. “If we could change things during the year and had a choice of 12 compounds then you can do a whole lot of other things, but with essentially three compounds - because the supersoft is only for street circuits - so you really have those three compounds to cover a 50C track down to 15C and sometimes you are compromised.”