When they first threw the red flag, i thought that would be the end of the race, and i feared Lewis would “steal” the victory if they did a restart (not really anything against Lewis, he is a superb driver, but i would love to see the championship go down to the last lap of the last race)…
Boy was i wrong… Lewis taking himself out of contention for points and a nice podium with Vettel up there after a bit of a disappointing first races with Aston Martin (i hoped he would be a bit stronger against Stroll, but Stroll shows that even if his dad bought him the ride, he performs pretty good)
I recorded this race and unfortunately, the red flag made the recording run out before the restart! ARRRGH! I was able to see it later on however. Pretty good race. At least it held my attention to the end.
I felt really bad for Max, he had that one. But I’m quite OK with Perez winning, and really OK with Vettel being on the podium and Hamilton NOT being there. When they threw the red I threw my hands up! Here we go, Perez is a sitting duck… But Hamilton misjudged Turn 1, and the rest is history.
It will be interesting to see how Pirelli handles damage control. I know they have already said they think it was debris, and well could be, but I don’t think so. There was a video I saw that laid out how the presenter thought that both tires came apart at the shoulder/tread attach point. Again, we will see.
Yes, if that were the case, it would be a fatigue fracture of the carcass, and that would be quite bad because you cannot rely on the service life of the tyre.
Of course, one would have to check whether this could be caused by the air pressure, camber angle or even the driving style.
As most people have already said, you won’t take it outside and put it on medially.
What is annoying is that it can end up costing the driver who is neck and neck with the Wm points the championship because of something like this.
Just like it did with Vettel when he was still at Ferrari.
He also had a nasty crash that cost him important points and Hamilton won so narrowly.
If you think back to the Bridgestone and Michlin times, there was never anything like that, it’s only since Pirelli that it happens again and again.
Even when they drove over the curbs, the tyre broke.
Well, this weekend both drivers were lucky, but that can also end differently if you drive over the kerbs and there are other cars involved.
The FIA should take action slowly and not only when a driver is 3 metres under the kerb.
The tyre is just as relevant to safety as the monocoque.
If that was the case then Red Bull then definitely made their day having the Maci red flag the race at that point as it wound up giving them an extra 18 point lead in the constructors. I’d have been pretty quick to blame Pirelli on previous occasions but on this one, and given the hard compound was well within scope, I don’t immediately doubt the construction like Silverstone 2013.
BTW, Checo had a killer race. If it wasn’t for a slow pitstop he would have come out ahead of Max and in the lead. He also managed Lewis’ attacks for ~20 laps. And on top of it all, was nursing hydraulic pressure issues during the 2nd half of the race (RB wasn’t sure the car would even finish the race). I know Vet got driver of the day and don’t mind but perhaps Checo was more deserving.
This video is either willfully or ignorantly ignoring the fact that the failed tires are NOT the most heavily loaded on that circuit (the right rear is). And since the video’s entire argument is based on loading on the tire, the argument is invalid.
It will be interesting to see if any investigation will be carried out and if so what the result will be. The only reason I think that debris is not the leading cause at the moment is because I heard them say during the broadcast that the engineers indicated that had debris/puncture been the cause they would have known immediately upon inspection of the data. Apparently nothing in the data led them to that conclusion.
Do I think Pirelli intentionally brought a compromised tire to the event? No way do I think that. These teams and cars put remarkable demands on this racing rubber, and Pirelli I’m sure goes through great effort to bring the very best tire they can to each and every event. Sometimes things come up that no one could predict. Sometimes teams put setups in their cars that exceed the capability of the tire. All of this will have to be taken into account if/when the inquiry happens.
I’m mostly curious what caused Stroll’s failure. Max’s failure could have been due to carbon left on the track from the Stroll crash (note his tired failed right around the area where Stroll’s car came to rest).
Hmm, interesting. They are saying that somehow the car had the air pressure lowered on the tires, in particular the left rear while out on track thus causing an overstress condition that led to failure. I’m not sure I buy this. Sounds to me that Red Bull definitely doesn’t buy it. I am not aware that teams have a way to manipulate air pressure of the tires while the cars are out on track. Perhaps they do, but I am not aware of it.
What I took away was that the way tire pressure is checked, it allows time and the opportunity for teams to modify before the tires are put on the car. So they’re talking with the FIA to come up with a different method for checking.
It’s possible I’m misunderstanding the article though.
I think they meant all (or maybe just the rears) were not at proper pressure. It just happened that the loads on the left were just right to cause failure.
“F1 teams are currently only required to run tyres at a minimum tyre pressure when they are first fitted to the cars, as there is no requirement for them to maintain pressures once a car is out on track.”
So the tires are aired up, fitted onto the car and wrapped in a blanket with no manipulation of said tires. When the car goes out on track, you have what you have. This last part is what is up for interpretation. What is meant by out on track? Is there a point in time when the car leaves the pit for the sighting lap and comes back before the start where tire pressures can be adjusted? I have not seen it done.
Red Bull insists that they followed protocols to the letter.
“When they are first fitted to the cars”. This is the grey area. Does this mean that if a tire is put on the car for the FIRST time during a single practice lap to scrub the surface so it’s ready on race day it’s now legal regardless of what you do to it afterwards?
Can you adjust tire pressures after the installation lap before the lights go out?
Is the tire temperature taken into account when measuring pressures?
I dunno, that verbiage leaves so much room for interpretation. But I’m way too lazy to read the sporting regulations so I’ll just pontificate until someone tells me I’m wrong lol.
Really great racing today! Redbull outfoxed the Mercs and they’re in a solid position. You just knew two laps before the end it was all over for Hamilton.
