Pirelli has confirmed the tyre failures which put Max Verstappen and Lance Stroll out of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix occured because their tyres were running at lower pressures than expected.
However the sport’s official tyre supplier stated the teams responsible for both cars had complied with the rules and the starting minimum tyre pressures.Pirelli announced the result of its investigation into the failures on Tuesday. While denying a problem with its tyres had lead to the failures, it also stated the teams had complied with the rules. “We didn’t say that the teams made something that is not permitted in the regulation,” said Pirelli’s head of motorsport Mario Isola.
However F1 has updated a key technical directive for this weekend giving the FIA new powers to check teams’ tyre pressures and blanket temperatures during sessions. Isola said this has been imposed because the Baku failures occured as the tyres were running in different conditions to those Pirelli expected based on their starting pressures.
“What happened in Baku is simply that the running conditions expected were different compared to the actual running conditions and that created the failure,” he said.
“The failure was a circumferential cut on the inside shoulder – for both the tyres it was the same failure mode. When you have a lot of energy going into the tyres with a pressure that is lower compared to the expectation, the result is that on the sidewall you have what we call standing waves.
“Standing waves are putting a lot of energy into the inside shoulder of the tyre and at a certain point the tyre breaks. And that is what happened and the reason why we had this situation in Baku.”
Isola said the updated technical directive for this weekend has been brought in because they do not currently have the ability to check teams’ tyre pressures during races.
“Ideally what we should police, the important parameters to police for the tyres, are the running conditions,” he said. “Running conditions are the running stabilised pressure, the load, the speed, the camber. Obviously some of these parameters are not enforceable simply because we don’t have the tools to do that.”
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This will change when new tyre regulations are introduced for the 2022 F1 season, said Isola.
“Next year, everybody knows that with the 18-inch tyres we will have a standard sensor that is provided to all the cars and is controlled by the FIA. And in that case, it is possible to police the running pressure.
“Right now each team is fitting different sensors and these sensors are not under control so we cannot police the running stabilised pressure. It is not because we don’t want to do that, it is simply not possible.”
Isola reiterated the teams involved had complied with the regulations as they were written at the time.
“If the regulation is not written which is the running pressure that you have to respect, I cannot say that they were doing something against the regulation in their search of more performance, because if they respect the starting pressure at the moment they are complying with the regulation.
“If the same happens next year when we, with a standard sensor, impose a running pressure, in that case, they are against the regulation. But this is not the case this year and it is not possible to do that simply because we don’t have a sensor where we can rely on measurements.”
Isola added the cuts discovered on tyres from Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel’s cars were not linked to the failures which caused the two crashes.
“The failure was not related to the cut that we found not only on Lewis’ tyre but also on one tyre from Sebastian,” he said in response to a question from RaceFans. “The cuts were due to debris, for sure, but the debris was not sharp enough to cut the construction.
“At the beginning the idea was that there was some debris cutting the construction because obviously the evidence of other tyres had some cuts on the tread. But then when we finalised investigation, we found that it was not due to the cuts.”
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2021 French Grand Prix
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Exediron (@exediron)
17th June 2021, 19:01
Is it a problem that the tyre used by the Pinnacle of Motorsport has an operating window so narrow that it needs a microscope to find, and will explode if you take it even marginally outside that window?
No? Oh, okay. Carry on, then.
falken (@falken)
17th June 2021, 19:07
Doesn’t matter if the window is wide or not.
Teams deliberately went outside the window. End of.
Roger Ayles (@roger-ayles)
17th June 2021, 19:24
@falken @f1-plossl The real issue is that the Pirelli comedy cheese tires are incapable of been run in any way other than the very specific way Pirelli dictate & that has been the root cause of all of the tire related problems over the past joke tire decade.
Tires in the past could be pushed to & a bit beyond the limits because they were designed knowing that this is a big part of the sport, Always has been & always should be. The Michelin’s, Bridgestone’s & good years could be run at lower than 13psi, The Pirelli’s fail at anything below 20psi it seems & the high pressures are the root cause of all the temperature related problems that have been a negative for the racing by preventing drivers pushing hard for too long.
The fact these Pirelli joke tires need all this over-regulation because of how awful they are is a joke, At no point in the sports history has it ever needed regulations to cover for the shoddy design of the tires its been supplied with. That is the problem, The tires are a joke & after a decade it’s clear that Pirelli are incapable of making proper racing tires that are suitable & worthy of been used in the pinnacle of the sport!
Jonathan Edwards
17th June 2021, 19:59
Teams used to test virtually every day of the week as well. How many tire tests do we currently have? How many years were Pirelli forced to test with old cars? Were Michelin and Bridgestone asked to design tires that degrade artificially?
Not an apples to apples comparison.
Steve (@scbriml)
18th June 2021, 9:08
Plus the cars are exerting way more forces on the tyres than in the days of all those “great” tyres.
RandomMallard (@)
17th June 2021, 20:47
@roger-ayles People forget though that during the tire war that seems to be the blood and lungs of every F1 fan following the sport from that time is that certain suppliers, mainly Bridgestone, made their tires to work for only one team (in Bridgestone’s case, Ferrari), and the other teams on Bridgestone tires were sort of just told “take them or go home”. Which is just a case of ‘running the tires in a very specific way Bridgestone dictate’, by happening to be a Ferrari car. And I mean in one specific case Michelin made a VERY good jobs of making tires that work didn’t they. And that’s the other problem of a tire war. The two manufacturers push each other to the limit, but don’t really know where that limit is until it’s been crossed. And that led to a 6 car grand prix. And as Jonathan points out above, they could test a lot more in those days, while costs simply don’t permit that anymore.
Roger Ayles (@roger-ayles)
17th June 2021, 22:53
@randommallard The primary reason the Bridgestone’s ended up been more suited to one team (Ferrari) was because Ferrari were doing most of the testing as they were the only top team still using Bridgestone’s which led to Ferrari doing 90% of the testing/development. Had more top teams been using Bridgestone’s testing & development would have been more equal as was the case with the Michelin’s.
And that for me was never a problem as that sort of ‘factory team’ relationship has always been a part of the sport be it tires, engines, gearboxes or in some cases chassis. Most of the smaller teams for instance used to survive on year+ old customer Ford engine supplies for instance & in 1993 the latest Ford engine’s were designed around the Benetton who had the exclusive factory partnership.
And in terms of Michelin/2005 USGP, That was one race where there was an issue, One race in the many where F1 did feature multiple tire suppliers going back to the very first race of the world championship. It was also caused by a very specific set of circumstances which wasn’t 100% Michelin’s fault. They didn’t know the new diamond cut track surface would put significantly more load on the tires, And the only reason Bridgestone did was because they supplied tires to Indycar so got the data on the new surface from those which was data that wasn’t available to Michelin. Had Bridgestone not been supplying tires to Indycar they also wouldn’t have known just how much more stress that diamond cut surface was putting on the tires & we likely would have had no cars starting that race or maybe even a greater push to find a solution.
F1 to me is about competition, Always has been & always should be. Competition not just between teams & drivers but also competition between engines, gearboxes, brakes & indeed tires. F1 isn’t a spec series & all aspects of it should be open to competition, That is supposed to be what the sport is about! Always was & always should be!
Roger Ayles (@roger-ayles)
17th June 2021, 22:57
@randommallard I’d also pint out that there have been way more issues with tires in the last 10 years of Pirelli than there ever was during periods of a tire war.
You never had teams, drivers or fans questioning the safety or suitability of the tires in those times.
This whole past decade has been a total joke with the tires.
RandomMallard (@)
18th June 2021, 8:14
@roger-ayles In my view you appear to contradict yourself. You talk about how much you enjoy competition, but then go on to say that manufacturer-supplier exclusive relationships are OK. In my view that is not competition, that is a monopoly. You get the big teams win, get money, form these exclusive partnerships and prevent other teams from catching up, which just forms a positive feedback loop. OK so the first part of that loop is competitive, but I don’t personally think that holding exclusivity over the best parts encourages competition. It’s why I’m so happy that from this season (possibly next year I don’t know if it changed with the new car delay), all customer teams have to be offered the exact same hardware as the factory teams.
anon
17th June 2021, 21:37
@roger-ayles I am curious as to where you are getting the assertion that Bridgestone, Goodyear and Michelin would “design the tyres to be pushed to and beyond the limits” and that they were allowing the teams to operate the tyres with pressures of 13psi or even lower.
In the case of Bridgestone, they were giving the teams an explicit band of pressures that they had to stick to on safety grounds and the pressure range seem to have been higher than you suggest (more like 14-16psi). Where are the values that you are citing coming from?
Michelin
17th June 2021, 21:43
Michelin tyres had several issues both in formula 1 and in MotoGP races. Indianapolis F1 race in 2005 was a disaster for Michelin teams, for esempi e.
For baku race only two cars that stressed the tyres beyond theyr limits of pressure had issues.
Chaitanya
18th June 2021, 3:42
Current complaints regarding the Michelin tyres in MotoGP seem to be regarding consistency of compounds with same compound behaving unpredictably between sessions. It’s very unfortunate MotoGP has also ended up in similar situation to F1.
Michelin
17th June 2021, 21:50
Remember Indianapolis 2005 F1 race for exemple of Michelin reliability !!!
Or several motogp races ……
Roger Ayles (@roger-ayles)
18th June 2021, 11:40
Indy 2005 was one single race where the Michelin’s had issues for some very specific reasons that were not totally the fault of Michelin.
There have been way more problems with the Pirelli’s than there ever was with the Michelin’s.
Pirelli are continually & repeatedly bringing the sport into disrepute.
#PirelliOut!
Dave
15th July 2021, 13:54
Dismissal calls…
Pat Ruadh (@fullcoursecaution)
17th June 2021, 19:25
“both cars had complied with the rules and the starting minimum tyre pressures”
Plossl (@)
17th June 2021, 19:13
There was no operating window, there tyres were running at lower than recommended pressure, the forces at 200+mph in the tyre would of been astronomical (see what I did there) therefore they failed.
NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
17th June 2021, 19:47
Load was higher then tyre was able to bear.
Very simple.
Pressures required for car with 50% more weight and downforce are about 50% higher, this is why old cars had 13 psi, and now 20 is more common.
cdfemke (@cdfemke)
18th June 2021, 0:06
As per request, or orders, from fia/fom. Pirelli delivered what was ordered
falken (@falken)
17th June 2021, 19:01
Red Bull : Busted
Barry Bens (@barryfromdownunder)
17th June 2021, 19:40
Falken: Not very smart and can’t read
RandomMallard (@)
17th June 2021, 20:51
@falken They did nothing wrong. Pirelli gave them the wrong information.
The teams should be able to have confidence in the information given to them by the people who supply the tires. In this case, Pirelli got the two most important pieces of information wrong: the minimum pressures and the tire life.
Artis
17th June 2021, 23:07
Any team that would pump up the tyres harder than minimum prescribed would make a tactical and technical mistake. It is less good for the cars behavior. So if the tyres at the minimum pressure prescribed behave differently in running conditions, causing failure, it is still a mistake from Pirelli not understanding their tyres. They do not seem to have any margin. I expect that putting even more air in the tyres will not be the solution.
Kingshark (@kingshark)
17th June 2021, 23:45
@falken : does not know how to read
F1oSaurus (@)
18th June 2021, 8:36
@kingshark That’s a ridiculous over simplification.
It’s the teams responsibility to run the tyres at the correct running pressure and they know this should stay above the specified minimum for safety reasons. Yet they choose to run below it.
Sure the tests based on starting pressures were not adequate to stop them from doing so at the time:
So they changed the regulations to stop Red Bull and Aston Martin from doing the same thing again.
Yet again regulations changes are needed to prevent Red Bull from circumventing safety guidelines.
D
18th June 2021, 12:21
There’s no such thing as “correct running pressure”, as specify by Pirelli. You are making stuff up.
Pirelli designates start pressures under the assumption that they are enough to determine track performance. Assumptions that’s obviously wrong, either due to Pirelli’s mathematical models being wrong or the tyres not being up to spec.
Roger Ayles (@roger-ayles)
17th June 2021, 19:14
Why don’t they just admit that there tires are an embarrassing joke.
At no point in the sports history have the tires needed to be babied as much as these awful Pirelli’s do. You can’t push these awful tires, You can’t do anything other than run them within the absurdly tiny operating window that Pirelli dictates because as soon as you do anything that pushes them they fall to bits like the comedy cheese tires they are.
It’s clear that Pirelli simply cannot produce suitable for F1 tires. They have had a decade to get it right & have never once been able to produce proper racing tires & after a decade it is obvious they likely never will be able to.
At no point ever in F1’s history has the sport ever had the introduce regulations or make changes to the cars to cover up the deficiencies of it’s tire suppliers product until this awful Pirelli comedy tire era.
The pinnacle of the sport should have the best tires available & the fact they have by far the worst in the entirety of the sport is an embarrassment!
It’s time to just call it for what it is & start looking for another tire supplier who can have a go at doing a better job because its clear Pirelli are incapable of been anything other than a total embarrassment!
cdfemke (@cdfemke)
18th June 2021, 0:08
They did when they entered the sport. But they have to deliver the tyre spec as ordered by FIA/FOM. They could make better.tyres but fia doesnt want them
F1oSaurus (@)
18th June 2021, 8:38
@roger-ayles Which tyres are going to work if they are run outside of the safety guidelines?
Roger Ayles (@roger-ayles)
17th June 2021, 19:35
Actually thinking about it Pirelli were mandating the minimum starting pressures right.
But would pressures not increase rather than decrease when out on the track?
We know that straight out of the blankets they are not fully upto temperature & I believe that pressures go up along with temperature so after 30+ laps of racing why would pressures have been lower than they had been out the blankets?
The main reason we see drivers going so slow on out laps in practice/qualifying now is because of how high the starting pressures are so driving slow will lower temps/pressures allowing them to push harder for a full hot lap rather than overheating after 1 corner & falling to bits before the end.
So I just don’t see how doing 30+ racing laps results in lower than expected pressures. They are just making excuses to cover for there awful product i reason. Kick them out of F1 for good!
David
17th June 2021, 19:44
“lower than expected”
So above the cold minimum, but not as high as Pirelli were expecting a loaded tyre to be at around the track.
It’s plausible, but feels like a real edge case of an explanation.
NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
17th June 2021, 19:49
Safety car restarts, and potentially higher tgan expected downforce.
CashNotClass (@cashnotclass)
17th June 2021, 22:28
@roger-ayles Yes and no. Normal cars see this effect of rising pressure in the tyres after being driven for a while. This is why manufacturers will recommend both cold and driven pressures for their tyres, with cold tyres often having about 0.3 bar (4 or 5 psi) lower values than driven tyres.
However, F1 tyres are used much hotter and this is when oxygen, water vapor and rubber can start to get into trouble. To avoid these effects, F1 tyres – like aircraft tyres – are usually filled with pure nitrogen, which also keeps pressures stable even at high temperatures.
SteveR
18th June 2021, 1:43
That’s just not true. Any gas increases pressure with increased temperature. Boyle’s law is P/T1 = P2/T2, so P2 = (P1)(T2)/T1. If you increase the temperature you increase the pressure. Let’s not get into thermal conductivity of gases though, that’s why teams are required to use nitrogen to inflate the tires (which are mounted and initially inflated by Pirelli).
Aircraft tires are inflated to very high pressures (200 psi for the 737) and are at atmospheric temperature or less when landing. Braking puts a huge amount of heat into the carbon brakes which is transferred to the tires and can cause fires or bursting. Aircraft tires have a fuse plug that will blow out above a certain pressure to prevent tire explosions.
cdfemke (@cdfemke)
18th June 2021, 0:11
Yes but not whrn teams heatcycle them several times in the blankets when presure get checked and then cool m before the start, achieving a lower starting presure but still complying to the checks. Kinda like with the bending wings. If it passes the checks its bound to be legal. But it isnt. Justncant prove it. The other trick is using something other than the air mixture so that the tyres will run on lower presure under load. That also beats the system
Barry Bens (@barryfromdownunder)
17th June 2021, 19:52
So because Pirelli is incompetent after years of being the sole tyre supplier, teams have to jump through more hoops once again. What a joke of a company and a joke of a sport F1 has become. ‘Yes we didnt expect this and that is the reason two cars crashed into the walls at God knows how many KMP/h’.
And yet you’ll have people saying ‘haha yes but Red Bull and Aston cheated!!!!’. They didn’t and if the tyres supplied blow up when the actual pressure is slightly different than the expected one, you should consider stop making tyres. Obvisouly you’re not very good at it.
CashNotClass (@cashnotclass)
17th June 2021, 22:13
Right, it’s important to note that Pirelli has been mandating (very high) pressures for years. They keep changing this throughout the race weekend, and end up with a value teams need to race with. They set the pressures, and the FIA has given them full authority to do this. But despite already running at high pressures normally, and having the benefit of the practice sessions to tinker with their mandates, Pirelli’s tyres at the prescribed pressures (which Aston Martin and Red Bull both followed perfectly fine, as Pirelli themselves admit) still couldn’t to handle the Baku circuit.
cdfemke (@cdfemke)
18th June 2021, 0:12
Its notnthe tyre they want to make or can make… but its the sort of tyre that the fia orders them to make
K (@sugoi)
17th June 2021, 20:44
Excusatio non petita, accusatio manifesta.
cdfemke (@cdfemke)
18th June 2021, 0:12
Precies, dat wilde ik dus ook net zeggen… denk ik
melanos
18th June 2021, 22:35
Just the opposite. Pirelli are to blame, the teams do comply and still the tyres blow up due to an unexpected pressure wave. This is not what you were trying to say, you were blaming FIA
StefMeister (@stefmeister)
17th June 2021, 20:50
Having to come up extra regulations (And make aero changes to the cars) to help the tyres is to put it mildly….. Not ideal & not something i’m especially fond of.
But TBH I think this is what you get for coming up with mandates & target letters looking to use tyres to ‘spice up the show’.
I think F1 needs to go back to the way they handled tyres before 2011. The FIA dictate the tyre dimensions & work with the supplier to come up with how many compounds will be in the range & how many sets they take to each race but it should be left purely upto the tyre supplier how they decide to make the tyres with the emphasis been on producing the best/safest possible product.
If nothing else at least then the tyre supplier of the time would have no excuses if the tyres they turned up with were not especially good.
RandomMallard (@)
17th June 2021, 20:54
Also, if anyone is wondering exactly what a “circumferential break on the inner sidewall” is and how it can be caused, this video does a pretty good job of explaining it:
https://youtu.be/P2o3WHLTyy4?t=77
Kribana (@krichelle)
18th June 2021, 5:36
I am not impressed by that. We are lucky that Max and Lance got out of their cars without any harm. We already dodge one by Vettel in SPA 2015 while catching Grosjean.
Learon
18th June 2021, 8:42
Very useful, thanks for sharing.
K (@sugoi)
17th June 2021, 20:56
I thought this sport was about engineering and ability.
Pirelli are continuously showing they are incapable of engineer their tires.
We should expect they know how much aero do their customers put in their cars, and knowing the engineering specifics of the tires, they should provide, through a series of processes, maths, physics, etc. a feasible and final pressure and temperature start conditions for their product.
But no, they are simply applying trial-and-error from Friday to Saturday, changing the conditions as they feel they should.
Engineering is not a feeling nor an opinion. Engineering are maths and responsibility.
What if Hamilton or Sainz back in Silverstone ’20 or Stroll or Verstappen in Baku ’21 had suffered another sort of …consequences?
As an extreme example, you’ll know our road tires have a speed code which defines what is the maximum speed our tires are capable to handle. Imagine you are using a 91W and it literally explodes when reaching 60mph.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
17th June 2021, 21:48
Yes, should make a petition to send pirelli away from f1!
RandomMallard (@)
17th June 2021, 22:13
@sugoi One of the problems is the lack of testing time. As you suggest, you can do plenty of theoretical work to try and produce the best tires, but until you can actually test them in realistic, variable conditions, you can’t truly know how they will react, and they are left having to make approximations, not necessarily guesses, based on practice on Friday/Saturday.
K (@sugoi)
18th June 2021, 0:38
I understand what you mean, and it’s understandable that lab conditions will never match a real race. But to my eyes it still looks as gambling.
Why change compounds? The circuit remains the same, with a few minor tweaks, and the cars have not changed that much – they even have less downforce in the rear end.
https://press.pirelli.com/2020-azerbaijan-grand-prix–tyre-compound-choices/
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.formula1.com/en/latest/article.what-tyres-will-the-teams-and-drivers-have-for-the-2021-azerbaijan-grand.3in0tPPqZVVtMMC4pCUmlY.html
cdfemke (@cdfemke)
18th June 2021, 0:14
They didnengineer their tyres exactly ro order from fia. So ludo’s to them fornthat. That it isnt the best tyre they can make or should make is not up to pirelli, but they should do more politics to get the fia to understand better what they should order
K (@sugoi)
18th June 2021, 0:32
As far as I know, FIA requested prime, plateau and cliff phases for tires. (I don’t remember the exact terms).
We’ve seen this for each and every race (bar wet races): drivers pace suddenly drops 1-2 seconds, meaning they have reached the cliff phase. We’ve also seen some races where a driver keeps the cliff tires for the last laps of a race, losing some positions, but not putting their life at the stake.
Verstappen literally was lapping fastest lap after fastest lap, and then… boom.
Has FIA requested a non-existent cliff phase?
Rick Howell
17th June 2021, 21:09
Oh come on.. this is 2021 and the pinnacle of motersport cannot monitor tire pressure? My 2015 BMW monitors tire pressure. Maybe Russ shoild talk to BMW.
JR Love (@dermechaniker)
17th June 2021, 21:18
They do monitor tyre pressures. They just do not have a standardized sensor/system that can be — key point here — independently monitored from outside the individual team’s engineering staff.
The issue, of course, is if Pirelli/FIA simply requested the current telemetry from the cars, the teams could doctor that data, making it useless.
It needs to be available outside of the team’s control, which what 2022 is going to provide.
Kerry Maxwell (@kerrymaxwell)
17th June 2021, 21:44
What is the likelihood that RB and AM were fiddling with ways for the tires to pass inspection, but achieve lower pressures at race pace through toying with what the tires were inflated with, or the moisture content of the air? The fact that Pirelli’s dictum on tire parameters mentioned both of these leads me to believe there’s a reason to suspect it.
RandomMallard (@)
17th June 2021, 22:15
@kerrymaxwell It may well be the case. But there is no evidence at the moment, and it is highly likely that other teams were doing the same, and just got lucky that their tires didn’t go. They found a very similar cut in Hamilton’s tyre after all as well.
Robbie (@robbie)
17th June 2021, 23:51
@kerrymaxwell @randommallard I just wonder if it comes down to how certain cars treat tires and how certain setups drivers prefer also treat the tires. Eg. Perez and Vettel likely didn’t have the same setups and perhaps it’s even driving style as their teammates, and their tires didn’t blow, mind you perhaps they were close to doing so.
cdfemke (@cdfemke)
18th June 2021, 0:15
Its well kbown they use the blanketntrick amd some other gasses in the tyre to lower the actual running presure compared to the moment of measuring. Problem is that the rules on how to check needs to be rewritten amd it takes time. Like with the wings, same sort of tricks
Steve (@scbriml)
18th June 2021, 9:28
@kerrymaxwell That’s an outrageous suggestion! That would be like a team designing a rear wing that can pass the static load test, but deforms during the race.
Gerrit
17th June 2021, 21:48
The answer to problems with side wall flex and failure is 18″ wheels and reduced side wall height.
High sidewalls means suspension travel and shock absorption can be reduced (stiffening the suspension) in the car as the tire can be asked (even though maybe not designed and engineered to) to carry out some of those functions.
Lowering the sidewall height means the cars will need to be engineered with greater suspension travel and shock absorption.
Alternatively get rid of 50% of the aero assist down force to reduce sidewall loadings. Cant keep adding down force on high sidewall tires and expect them to last.
Is F1 the last bastion of high sidewall circuit racing tires?
Artis
17th June 2021, 22:53
It is clear from the Pirelli statement that they do not have data of pressure during the race. They have a measurement before and a measurement after, both with cooler tyres. So how did they come up with this statement that the running pressure was lower than expected? Did they calculate/inter-/extrapolate it? I have no trust in their statement.
F1oSaurus (@)
18th June 2021, 8:42
The teams do know the running pressures of course. Maybe they handed over their data?
Tristan (@skipgamer)
18th June 2021, 0:09
It’s very frustrating to see so many armchair experts complaining about the tyres and comparing them to the past.
It’s so different how much downforce is generated and the speeds through the corners. The old formulas were much faster on the straights, slower through the corners with less downforce, and the cars were much lighter to boot.
Pirelli’s explanation here makes a lot of sense.
Steve (@scbriml)
18th June 2021, 9:29
@skipgamer Stop being reasonable, that’s not how the game is played.
Becken Lima (@becken-lima)
18th June 2021, 0:28
Old habits die hard. Red Bull already have put their drivers in jeopardy to win the 2011 Belgian GP. Again, they´re ignoring Pirelli guidelines and risking their drivers life.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
18th June 2021, 1:17
The tyre was clearly running below pressure. 0 psi…
mfreire
18th June 2021, 1:52
I, like so many people are absolutely sick of these Pirelli tires and Pirelli’s incompetence. They need to be ousted.
Dani B. Molina (@esmiz)
18th June 2021, 2:54
Pirelli is a joke, as is the F1 bosses for demanding this type of ultrasoft ultradegrading tires. Can’t understand how can they shout that they are “going green” and using tires that literally end up scattered all over the place. But hey, they shout that they fight racism and defend human rights and race in Bahrein or Saudi Arabia so… nothing new here.
Michael A.
18th June 2021, 3:15
I do not blame Pirelli entirely for the rubbish that the F.I.A. and F.O.M. require for Formula One.
However, I no longer use Pirelli tyres on my road cars, simply due to the lousy performance in Formula One Grand Prix racing of the tyres that are demanded to ‘enhance’ the show. All this talk from Pirelli about tyre pressures is total rubbish.
I have been a follower of Formula One since 1950 and also remember the Englebert tyres that Ferarri used, throwing treads on faster circuits, but Enzo stayed with the brand for some time because they were free.
Does anyone from Pirelli, F.I.A. and F.O.M. (including the Liberty people) read articles and comments on here? If they do, some genuine explanations please.
This whole situation is extremely sad. All race tyres should be guaranteed to last more than a race distance, along with a required safety margin.
kpcart
18th June 2021, 3:50
I read the comments here and see comments made by people who make up their own truth. Nothing wrong with pirelli, they have built possibly the grippiest and most reliable tyres in motorsport history, and build to what they are told to build by the FIA. But teams have found loopholes on how to pump other gasses into the tyres during the race and alter tyre pressures. You claim to have watched since 1950, then you would have noticed eras with more than one brand used and lack of competition because of that. The teams push dangerously to the limit in all eras with whatever tyres they are given. We have had great racing with these tyres this year, then crashtappen crashes and the brigade hates on pirelli!
SadF1fan
18th June 2021, 8:29
Actually Pirelli came up with thermal degrading tires themselves…
And if a change in 1 PSI is enough to endanger the construction of the tire, then lets be honest those tires are unfit for purpose.
Driving behind the safety car would have then caused damage to the construction of the tire. And Pirelli is in fact lucky only 2 tires blew.
Dave
17th July 2021, 19:44
How have I missed that line in the end, huh?
Okay, get in the coffin now.
kpcart
18th June 2021, 3:46
There we have it Verstappen’s crash will go down in history as a mechanical mistake caused by his team intentionally running the tyres on dangerously low pressures. This is Aston and Red Bull putting their drivers lives at risk by running under set operating pressures.
Ryan Tan
18th June 2021, 4:37
Hey Pirelli, your tyre not strong enough for races, they failed.
Wayne
18th June 2021, 5:36
While i feel its frustrating that drivera and nurse the tyres. This is not entirely pirellis dault. They designed a tyre that was prescribed by the fia. Pirelli did their job. If teams are running with pressures thats not within the recommendation of pirelli then they do so at their own risk. Its as simple as that.
sumedh
18th June 2021, 15:29
This statement is so strange. Max Verstappen is on record saying that Red Bull shared the data of the tyre pressures as recorded during the race and it was always above the minimum pressure. See here: h**ps://www.planetf1.com/news/driver-pirelli-meeting-boycott/
And Pirelli are still stating that the teams found a way to reduce the pressure during the race. Who is lying?