The tires punctured during the Qatar GP will arrive in Milan today and tomorrow the Pirelli staff will be able to begin laboratory tests to identify the causes that led to their failure. In Losail, four drivers accused the problems: Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes), Lando Norris (McLaren) and the two Williams drivers George Russell and Nicholas Latifi.
The sole supplier had “recommended” the two stops due to the high wear of the tires found on the Qatar track which was making its debut in the F1 world championship and, although, someone tried to finish last Sunday’s race with a single pit stop , there was no tire alarm.
While waiting for Pirelli to carry out the laboratory tests at Bicocca which will give answers to the questions, the attention of the teams and the tire dealer has focused on the Qatar curbs, finding that there have been problems similar to those seen at Red Bull Ring, another track configured with curbs that were suitable for MotoGP.
The pilots, especially in free practice, abused the low curbs of Qatar, ruining the bodies, front wings and barge boards. Then they took measures on the track to avoid major damage, but they didn’t give up on widening the trajectories to take advantage of a lower steering angle and greater speed.
From an initial visual investigation on the punctured tires, cuts would have emerged which, together with the wear of the tires, may have caused the problems that affected the four cars: the outer edge of the curb when it is passed can cause such cuts near the shoulder in the moment in which the car descends from the “step”.
Pirelli wants to get to the bottom of the question even if, this time, no team has set the index against the sole supplier, but on the conformation of the curbs. Probably next Monday we will know the results of the analyzes and we will know precisely what happened in Losail.
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