F1 News
Date:
5/July/2013
Pirelli could breathe a huge sigh of relief after day one of
the German F1 Grand Prix passed without any issues.
F1’s exclusive tyre manufacturer had been heavily criticised
following a series of left-rear failures during last weekend’s Silverstone
race.
The Grand Prix Drivers' Association then ramped up the
pressure by declaring that its members would “immediately withdraw” if similar
issues occur this weekend at the Nurburgring.
Revised tyres have been brought to Germany, while a
statement officially outlining limits on tyre pressure, camber and ‘swapping’
was released to the teams via the FIA on Friday morning.
Pirelli’s F1 boss Paul Hembery revealed that the biggest
factor in the Silverstone failures was ‘swapping’ - where teams were
deliberately putting tyres designed for the left hand side of the car on the
right, and vice versa, having found a performance gain from doing so.
“At Silverstone we’d
underestimated the impact of swapping the tyres,” Hembery explained. “Whilst
we’d allowed the teams to do that, we’d underestimated the impact on the tyre.
“When you swap them around that creates a point of weakness with
the metallic belt [construction]. We got that wrong and we needed to get it
right going forward.
“So coming here the metallic belt has changed to an aramid
belt, which is something the teams tested briefly in Canada. And going forward
further again, we’ll introduce the 2012 structure with this year’s compounds
for subsequent races.”
Hembery added that the Pirelli factory in Turkey had
“performed a few miracles” to produce about 1,000 of the re-designed tyres in
time for Germany.
The switch to the 2012 structure will also cause changes to
the aerodynamics, since last year’s tyres were of a different shape.
“Obviously the shape of the tyre is critical to the
aerodynamics around the front wing and around the diffuser,” confirmed
Ferrari’s Pat Fry. “We just need to re-optimise in those two areas. It’s
impossible to say if [the change] is going to benefit one car more than
another. I guess we’ll find out in Hungary.”
Pirelli is still to sign a contract with the FIA for 2014,
with paddock rumours long suggesting FIA president Jean Todt might welcome a
rival bid from Michelin.
Under such circumstances the recent controversy, which
follows on from the ‘secret’ Mercedes tyre test, could be seen as another
obstacle in the path of a new Pirelli agreement.
Hembery played down any talk of a rift with the FIA over the
tyre failures.
“I have to say that Jean Todt and the FIA were extremely
supportive,” he said.
“Actually we were talking, before Sunday, about a number of issues
going forward and I can only say that we thank the FIA for their great support,
including [Race Director] Charlie Whiting, over the last week.
“What I see is a very co-operative and very supportive FIA.”
On track, Red Bull’s reigning triple World Champion
Sebastian Vettel - who has never won his home event - set the Friday practice pace
by 0.235s from countryman and Silverstone winner Nico Rosberg (Mercedes).
Mark Webber (Red Bull) was third, followed by Lotus team-mates
Romain Grosjean and Kimi Raikkonen. The Ferraris of Fernando Alonso and Felipe
Massa were sixth and seventh, with Rosberg’s team-mate Lewis Hamilton in eighth
and the final driver within one-second of title leader Vettel.
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