Paul Hembery believes tyre misuse caused explosions in Silverstone – Formula 1 news
Pirelli motorsport boss, Paul Hembery has said that the misuse of tyres by the teams caused the explosions in the 2013 British Grand Prix.
Five drivers faced tyre explosion issue in Silverstone which hoisted safety concerns for them. In addition, the debris which flung due to the burst outs created even more problems for the drivers in the back.
At the end of the last race, many drivers including Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso of Ferrari, Jenson Button of McLaren and Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes, immensely criticised this year’s Pirelli compound tyres and asked for a proper solution for the ongoing
problems in order to ensure the safety of everyone in the sport. Besides, the FIA have also asked the Italian tyre company to suggest a reasonable solution by calling a meeting on Wednesday.
In contrast, Hembery believes that the tyres have not been used properly because of which they blew out during the race. Moreover, he said that their tyres are strong enough to handle the pressure if they are used in the right way.
“The 2013 tyres do not compromise safety if used in the correct way. I'd like to re-emphasise the fact that 2013 range of tyres, used in correct way, is completely safe,” Hembery said.
“What happened at Silverstone though has led us to ask for full access to real time tyre data to ensure correct usage and development of tyres that have sophistication we were asked to provide and extremely high performance that has lowered lap times by
more than two seconds on average,” he said.
Nevertheless, he said that they are thankful to the teams, drivers, FIA and FOM which have expressed support to resolve the issues.
“I would like to underline the collaboration and support that we are receiving from teams, drivers, FIA and FOM,” he added.
It will be important to mention that Pirelli have decided to strengthen the rear tyres for the approaching race and will move to 2012 tyres in the Hungarian GP.
Let’s see whether they will be able to make their tyres stronger to fulfil the safety standards for the forthcoming races or not.
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