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F1 British Grand Prix: Did this kerb cause Silverstone tyre chaos
- Published_at:2013-06-30
- Category:People & Blogs
- Channel:Kevin Deamandel
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- description: Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton says Pirelli must act now after "dangerous" tyre failures in the British Grand Prix. Four drivers suffered dramatic blowouts during the race at Silverstone, with Hamilton's happening after seven laps when he was leading. "It needs to be done straight away, it's obviously an issue," said Hamilton, who recovered to finish fourth as team-mate Nico Rosberg won. "It was the first time in my career I've ever felt it was dangerous." He added: "After my incident I was definitely nervous for the rest of the race that the tyres might go again. "Safety is the biggest issue. It's just unacceptable really. It's only when someone gets hurt that someone will do something about it. Play media Formula 1: Lewis Hamilton wants action on 'unacceptable' tyre failures "It's a waste of time talking to the FIA and if they don't do anything that says a lot about them." As well as Hamilton's incident, which left him last before he fought back to claim fourth place, Ferrari's Felipe Massa suffered a similar blow-out when running fifth, as did Toro Rosso's Jean-Eric Vergne. Late on in the race, McLaren's Sergio Perez suffered his second failure of the weekend, following a delamination in final practice. The ninth race of the 2013 season, the German Grand Prix, takes place next weekend at the Nurburgring. Mercedes did a three-day test with Pirelli after the Spanish Grand Prix in May. They were given a reprimand by the sport's governing body, the FIA, as well as being banned from next month's young driver test as punishment. Hamilton, who, along with Rosberg, carried out the test, said Pirelli needed to use the information gained to improve the tyres. "We had that tyre test to develop and improve the tyre and after that test they didn't do anything about it," Hamilton added. When asked whether he would race on these tyres on the high-speed Spa Francorchamps track, which hosts August's Belgian Grand Prix, he replied: "I'm a racing driver so I do what I'm asked to do." McLaren's Jenson Button agreed with Hamilton that the incidents put the drivers' lives at risk. "We've had five tyres over the last few days, it's a big issue and something that needs to be sorted out," said Button. "[Incidents] happening at 300kph, like for Checo [Sergio Perez's nickname], is not right. It's not just dangerous for the driver in the car, it's dangerous for all the other cars. "The cars behind [shouldn't] get hit by rubber that has metal in it. It's got to change. I don't think anything needs to be said. We all know the situation." BBC F1 technical analyst Gary Anderson went down to Turn Four, close to where two of the blow-outs occurred, and found that the ridge of them was "razor sharp". Pirelli motorsport boss Paul Hembery said: "We are taking the situation very seriously and we are currently investigating all tyres to determine the cause as soon as possible, ahead of the next grand prix in Germany. "We can't really say much more until we have fully investigated and analysed all of these incidents, which is our top priority. However, we can exclude that the new bonding process, which we introduced at this race, is at cause for the tyre failures we have seen here. Play media British GP highlights: Nico Rosberg wins frenetic race "There might be some aspect to this circuit that impacts specifically on the latest version of our 2013 specification tyres but we do not want to speculate. We will now put together all the evidence to find out what happened and take appropriate steps should these be required." Pirelli has been summoned to a meeting of the sporting working group on Wednesday to discuss the problem, but McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh said a solution to the problem could not wait until then. Whitmarsh and Red Bull team principal Christian Horner both suggested reverting to the specification of tyres used last year in time for next weekend's German Grand Prix. FIA race director Charlie Whiting, who admitted he considered stopping the race, said he had not experienced such a problem before. "I can't remember anything like this," said Whiting. "Four catastrophic failures is a first. It was quite close to being red-flagged." Although there were four high-profile blow-outs, there were actually a total of six failures in the race. Hamilton, Massa, Vergne and Perez all suffered left-rear failures. Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, who finished second, said his right rear failed at the final corner before he made his first pit stop. And Sauber's Esteban Gutierrez suffered a failure of his left-front tyre. Vergne's problem led to the safety car being introduced to enable marshals to clear tyre debris from the track.
| ranked in date | views | likes | Comments | ranked in country (#position) |
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| 2013-07-02 | 5,252 | 33 | 16 |
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