The FIA today imposed a ban on all tyre swapping for this weekend’s German Grand Prix. They have also issued strict limits on tyre pressures and cambers for the race.

This follows a request by Pirelli to the FIA, to limit how F1 teams exploit the rubber because according to Pirelli this was a major contributing factor to the blow-outs suffered at the British Grand Prix. Earlier this week, Pirelli openly blamed teams in a statement for the failures at Silverstone.

The FIA has agreed to enforce strict limits on tyre operations this weekend.

Race director Charlie Whiting, who nearly red-flagged the British Grand Prix, issued a note to teams on Friday stating that: “For safety reasons, we have been asked by Pirelli to ensure that the tyres on all cars are run under the conditions listed below.

It will be the responsibility of each team to satisfy the FIA technical delegate that the cars comply with the following requirements at all times.”

The note specified that minimum starting pressures front and rear will be 16psi, the minimum stabilised running front pressure will be 20psi, and at the rear it will be 19psi. The maximum negative camber allowed at the front will be four degrees, and it will be 2.5 degrees at the rear.

Regarding tyre swapping Charlie also added, “Front and rear tyres must be used on the side of the car for which they were originally designated (no swapping from side-to-side.)”. This was another factor which Pirelli stated contributed to the Silverstone failures.

With drivers threatening to boycott the German Grand Prix should further failures be experienced this weekend, we can only hope that the changes Pirelli has made to the tyres for this weekend will ensure that a recurrence of the drama last weekend is not seen at the Nurburgring.