F1 Madness

Tag: tyre failure

  • Rosberg moves Mercedes ahead in second Spanish GP practice session

    Rosberg moves Mercedes ahead in second Spanish GP practice session

    Formula One World Championship leader Nico Rosberg moved Mercedes ahead of the Ferraris during the second practice session for this weekend’s Spanish GP.

    Rosberg’s lap time of 1:23.922 on Pirelli’s soft tyres saw him finish the session 0.254s faster than his Ferrari rival Kimi Raikkonen. The Finn, who had been informed by his crew that he had a fuel system problem and needed to head back to the pits halfway through the session, finished 5 tenths faster than the second Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton. Sebastian Vettel brought the second Ferrari home fourth fastest.

    Carlos Sainz Jr enjoyed a great session in front of his home crowd in fifth place with Daniel Ricciardo going sixth fastest. Spanish GP home favourite Fernando Alonso finish seventh in his McLaren with Max Verstappen, Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg rounding out the Top 10.

    Jenson Button suffered a loss of power during his session and was forced to limp his McLaren back to his garage where he stayed until the latter stages of FP2. He managed to go 12th fastest ahead of Romain Grosjean who complained that his Haas F1 car was very difficult to drive.

    Kevin Magnussen was 14th and Kvyat 15th – ten places behind his new Toro Rosso team mate.

    Joylen Palmer, Spanish GP second practiceJoylen Palmer got very little running after suffering a high speed tyre failure along the pit straight. Pirelli are still investigating the cause of the failure.

    Palmer did manage to return to the track 15 minutes before the end of the session and finished 17th fastest ahead of the two Manor drivers, Pascal Wehrlein and Rio Haryanto.

    Sauber had a miserable session with both drivers substantially slower than their Manor rivals.

    Esteban Gutierez finished between the two Saubers after also having his running limited by an electronics issue.

    Classification for Spanish GP FP2:

    spanish-gp-FP2

  • Formula One teams demand urgent action over Pirelli tyre failures

    Formula One teams demand urgent action over Pirelli tyre failures

    Formula One team bosses are demanding urgent action over the Pirelli tyre failures suffered during today’s F1 British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

    According to McLaren team principal, Martin Whitmarsh, Formula One is in a “serious situation” as work needs to be done to come up with an urgent solution to the Pirelli tyre crisis witnessed at today’s race.

    Meetings are scheduled for the upcoming week, including a Sporting Working Committee meeting on Wednesday but Whitmarsh has added to the sentiments of Charlie Whiting, saying that urgent action is required even before that.

    “We clearly have a serious situation where we have to act responsibly, and respect Pirelli,” said Whitmarsh. “They have to do the best they can. We have to make a decision urgently, as it gives you a much better chance than talking about it on Wednesday when you want to drive out of the garage Friday.”

    Whitmarsh said that the only way to avoid a repeat of the drama at the German Grand Prix next weekend, would be to revert to last year’s tyres.

    Pirelli_Formula-1_2013_4“In 2012 we were not having this problem,” he said. “Therefore, if that is a known, established, durable specification, you would have thought  that is the easiest thing to do.”

    Red Bull boss, Christian Horner has backed Whitmarsh’s view saying, “The most logical thing would be to go back to the tyres that worked well for them previously. The tyres they had last year did not have these failures. They need to find a solution, and they need to address it. Whether they go back to last year’s car or a different tyre they need a solution.”

    Lotus team principal Eric Boullier also seems to think reverting to the 2012 rubber is a possible solution saying, “Going back to the Kevlar belt from last year would be one solution. I don’t know what they have in stock and how quick they can produce tyres. That is a question for Pirelli. It is a different track lay-out next weekend and first we need to find out what is causing these failures. But it is a concern.”

     

     

  • Charlie Whiting says “I almost red-flagged the race”

    Charlie Whiting says “I almost red-flagged the race”

    Formula One Race director Charlie Whiting said today that he “almost red-flagged the race” referring to today’s British Grand Prix which saw four tyre delamanations during the race.

    The safety car was deployed after the third tyre blow-out, suffered by Jean Eric-Vergne. Charlie said that not only were the drivers in danger, but the marshals too were being put at risk as they continually tried to clean up all the debris following the incidents.

    Pirelli tyre failures during the British Grand prix“It was quite close to being red-flagged; it did occur to me to do that,” he said. “To clear up all the debris was putting marshals at risk, and it is not satisfactory. We haven’t seen a failure like this before – and that is what has been addressed. So we need to analyse it very carefully to see if we are able to establish the cause.”

    He went on to say that it was, “too early to draw conclusions” regarding the cause of the tyre issues but hinted that tyres that did not fail could provide vital information in Pirelli’s analysis.

    “They have a lot of analysing to do. This includes the tyres that didn’t fail, because maybe we will find something there that was on the verge
    of failing that will give us a better indicator of what happened.”

    Charlie added that although the failures are to be discussed at a meeting of the Sporting Working Group on Wednesday, a solution must be found in advance, that suits all parties since the German Grand Prix is only one week away.