British Grand Prix 2013, Silverstone - Race 8/19

[drunkenmaster]

Pirelli still investigating failures, but have ruled out the new bonding process as the cause of failures.

they rule out a lot of things when they investigate tyre issues, normally ruling out them being responsible in any way at all. Why Pirelli are allowed to investigate themselves rather than someone else coming in and doing it a bit more independantly I don't know.

The curb video could certainly explain part of the reason why they are failing, but surely its not the only track with not great curbs, and more importantly we shouldn't have a situation where any slight error gets punished with an exploding tyre. Would be nice to hear from some drivers/commentators/guys in the know if curbs like that are common or if that is a huge screw up by Silverstone and a fix or repair of the curb gone horribly wrong.

this_is_gav, I'm genuinely sorry, I've both not got great eyesight and wasn't sitting right at desk as I'm preparing to move it really did look like "this is gay" and I thought it was just a funny name or someone having their named changed by a mod or something.


As for Rosberg, I don't want him to lose a win, but I also don't know how much he sped through a yellow flag section. ultimately if someone won by cheating I think its worse for the sport to let them keep the win if they didn't deserve it, as such I have no problem with results changing, and much more of a problem with things going unpunished. I have no idea if he went 2mph faster for half a second, or 20mph faster for 10 seconds, one I wouldn't care about the other is dangerous in a yellow flag area.

yellow flags are so marginal anyway, one person slows more than another and gets disadvantaged, the amount you have to slow is not particularly clear, nor the point where someone should or shouldn't get punished.

Safety car issues are a joke as well, particularly when they stay out for 2-3 extra laps letting backmarkers unlap themselves... but limit their speed while catching up, the track is clear, no marshalls are doing anything on track, no reason the backmarkers can't bang around full pace and save everyone 3 laps of boredom, utterly stupid they can't come up with another stage of safety car where the backmarkers can go full speed.

Hell if Webber had the extra couple laps, he'd likely have won.

 

[Flibster]

Pirelli press release

TYRE FAILURES TO BE CLOSELY EXAMINED
NEW BONDING PROCESS NOT AT FAULT

Silverstone, June 30, 2013 – Nico Rosberg has given Mercedes its first victory in the British Grand Prix since 1955 with first place at Silverstone.
The were a number of rear-left tyre failures during the race, which affected Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton, Felipe Massa (Ferrari), Jean-Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso) and Sergio Perez (McLaren). Pirelli engineers will investigate closely the cause of the failures ahead of next week’s German Grand Prix.

Pirelli’s motorsport director Paul Hembery said: “There have obviously been some issues with rear-left tyre failures which we have not seen before. We are taking the situation very seriously and we are currently investigating all tyres to determine the cause as soon as possible, ahead of the next Grand Prix in Germany. At the moment, we can’t really say much more until we have fully investigated and analysed all of these incidents, which is our top priority. However, we can exclude that the new bonding process, which we introduced at this race, is at cause for the tyre failures we have seen today. There might be some aspect to this circuit that impacts specifically on the latest version of our 2013 specification tyres but at this point we do not want to speculate but will now put together all the evidence to find out what happened and then take appropriate next steps should these be required.”

Fastest times of the day by compound:

Medium Hard Intermediate Wet
First WEB – 1.33.401 ROS – 1.33.531 N/A N/A
Second ALO – 1.34.090 HAM – 1.34.159 N/A N/A
Third MAS – 1.35.273 ALO – 1.34.386 N/A N/A

Longest stint of the race:
Hard 28 laps (Hamilton)
Medium 24 laps (Di Resta)

 

[~Mike~]

'We have no idea'

 

[Kenai]

'We have no idea'

Not quite!!

"There might be some aspect to this circuit"

So your statement should read:

'We have no idea, but we will seek to blame the track!'

 

[Mr Jack]

Why Pirelli are allowed to investigate themselves rather than someone else coming in and doing it a bit more independantly I don't know.

Who do you think has the expertise to do that? Pirelli have more reason than anyone else to get to the bottom of this and, more importantly, the knowledge needed to do it.

 

[bob055]

nm

 

[bob055]

nm

 

[Flibster]

They also don't want anyone else to know how the tyres are made. It's a closely guarded secret. Structure, layering, compounds....

Not that anyone really wants that information at the moment...

 

[CaptainRAVE]

Pirelli still investigating failures, but have ruled out the new bonding process as the cause of failures.

Next they will rule out anything to do with the rest of the manufacturing process and design

The problem is that Pirelli have absolutely no idea what is wrong with their tyres or how to fix it.

 

[Danthus]

As others have pointed out, tyres have been failing all year.

 

[Kenai]

As others have pointed out, tyres have been failing all year.

Not in quite the same 'explosive' manner though

 

[smr]

Theyll have to change them for next weekend. Going to be a hectic week at Pirelli.!

 

[Rybo89]

Get rid... Problem solved.

 

[JRS]

I'd actually bother to write a counter point, but I don't see why I should bother putting the effort in if you can't even read my name...

As it is, I'll merely state that you're wrong.

Some of us even have trouble with people managing three letters - I can't remember exactly how many times I've been called "JLS" on here now but it's certainly more than once!

Didn't see the race. Any good? Or shall I not bother with the highlights?

 

[CaptainRAVE]

At least the FIA are taking this seriously. Emergency meeting called.

 

[utajoker]

so the tyre muncher puts in the longest stint on one of the compounds.

 

[Korsun]

Sorry if this has already been mentioned.... The kerbs are not like kerbs found on our roads. I worked for Honda F1 for 6 years and the damage they can do to a car is shocking, let alone the tyres. so I'm not surprised if they are the cause of the failures which has been suggested on the tv coveradge today....

 

[Goksly]

Just been watching this on catchup - great race. Was hard to do work while it was on in the background Did anyone else hear Webber say to Alonso something along the lines of 'You did a great job picking up the safety car when Michael stopped *grin*' - Michael being his pet name for vettle?

 

[Goksly]

Sorry if this has already been mentioned.... The kerbs are not like kerbs found on our roads. I worked for Honda F1 for 6 years and the damage they can do to a car is shocking, let alone the tyres. so I'm not surprised if they are the cause of the failures which has been suggested on the tv coveradge today....

But if that's the case why doesn't this happen more often? Something has changed this race - might have been like one tyre failure every 3 or 4 races due to curbs. 4 in one race + others in FP / Q... something isn't right!

 

[Jono8]

Just been watching this on catchup - great race. Was hard to do work while it was on in the background Did anyone else hear Webber say to Alonso something along the lines of 'You did a great job picking up the safety car when Michael stopped *grin*' - Michael being his pet name for vettle?

I did! I thought he might have said "baby Michael" or something