BARCELONA, Spain (AP) - Tires shredded like paper, rubber flew everywhere and cars flitted in and out of pit lane like shoppers in a supermarket parking lot.
On a frustrating day for drivers and fans alike, nearly 80 pit stops were made during Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix, highlighting what has become a major concern for Formula One teams five races into the season - the vulnerability of Pirelli's tires.
"At this rate, F1 is going to become a pit-stop contest with a few race laps thrown in," 1997 F1 champion Jacques Villeneuve said during television commentary.
Things won't get much better in time for the showcase Monaco Grand Prix next week, as Pirelli said it won't be able to make changes to the tires before the Canadian GP next month. However, tires should be less of an issue in Monaco because the course layout makes it difficult to pass and speeds are slower than in other races.
Most drivers had hoped for a three-stop strategy Sunday but instead had to do four.
"I'm not here to defend four pit stops. We know it's too complicated," Pirelli's motorsport director Paul Hembery said. "It wasn't what we wanted. However, there's also many factors behind that and we have to make sure we get it back in line with what we've been asked to do, which is two or three (stops)."
It was a confusing sight at the Circuit de Catalunya with leading drivers pitting as early as the ninth lap. With so many stops, it was hard for spectators to keep track of which driver was actually in the lead.
"With this year's degradation and this year's tires we see the races keep changing all the time. Whoever keeps the tire alive normally is on the podium at least," said Fernando Alonso, who won the race. "If it's too much confusion for the spectators? There is no doubt. I think it's impossible to follow one race now. ... If I'm sitting in the grandstand, without any radio, telephone or something, you only see cars passing."
Strips of rubber were shooting off Jean-Eric Vergne's rear tire less than 40 laps into the race, and championship leader Sebastian Vettel, who was fourth, fears races are being more influenced by tires than driving skills.
"We are not going to the pace of the car, we are going to the pace of the tire," Vettel said, adding that Red Bull got its strategy wrong. "I think we tried to hang on to the three-stop for too long in the race and had to admit toward the end we wouldn't make it."
Red Bull's team principal Christian Horner echoed Vettel's concerns.
"They are black and round and called Pirelli," he said. "And whoever masters and understands these tires best and most consistently will emerge (victorious) at the end of the year."
Pirelli made modifications to its hard compound before the Spanish GP, and gave drivers an extra set of hard tires to practice on, but this made little difference on race day, where orders barked out over race radio were usually about sparing the tires.
"There's something wrong. This is the pinnacle of motor sport," former champion Jenson Button said. "We shouldn't be driving round so slowly to look after the tires."
For the Canadian GP, Hembery said Pirelli will try to provide teams with tires that mix the stability of the 2012 tires and "the performance of the current ones." Hembery, however, thinks some of the criticism has been unfair, especially as Pirelli has had to do testing on older F1 cars.
"It's all right to sit there and criticize. We're not exactly given the tools to do a precise job," he said. "We have absolutely no in-season testing. We don't have access to these cars that are going around now. We have to run around on a 2010 car."