F1 News
Pirelli declares punctures: "The greatest forces ever on these tires"
- GPblog.com
In three laps, three front left tyres of three different drivers suffered punctures during the UK GP. Pirelli explains what happened in the closing stages of the race. The conditions were abnormal and nowadays the forces that the tyres have to endure are particularly big.
Research Pirelli and FIA
Valtteri Bottas drove second and kept quite the pressure on race leader Lewis Hamilton. Just before the penultimate lap the Finn's left front tyre gave up. Bottas finished without points. However, in the final laps Carlos Sainz and Lewis Hamilton suffered the same fate.
Broken tyres are not only annoying for the drivers and teams, but can also cause dangerous situations. That's why Pirelli and the FIA decided to investigate whether it was wise to bring softer tyres for the next race.
Biggest forces ever on Pirelli tyre
Pirelli explains why the tyres suffered punctures and why there is no need to change the tyre palette for the Formula 1 70th anniversary Grand Prix: "The tyres had an extraordinarily long last stint of forty laps. That's more than three-quarters of the total race on a demanding circuit like Silverstone".
"Combined with the increased pace of the F1 cars in 2020 (pole time was 1.2 seconds faster than in 2019) this long stint during the final laps of the British GP caused a very heavy wear and tear. They were the greatest forces we've ever seen working on tyres".
The simple slogan that results from this is that teams with softer tires should be careful and probably can avoid a lot of trouble with a second pit stop during the race.