The last safety car sure made it interesting.

I liked how Kimi questioned their pit strategy at the end of the race, really impacted his finish.

Exploding tires...What a great concept. Kind of like Russian Roulette at speed.

Outside of that it was a good race.

Didn't watch the race on CNBC. Watched the replay later on NBC Sports. Speed tried to do this with putting some F1 races on Fox broadcast. They are trying to get you to watch CNBC and improve CNBC's ratings for commercial revenue.

On a side note, NBC announcers are pretty sure that Kimi is headed to Red Bull.

C'mon. Really?

F1 and every other pro racing series has had ALL of its drivers jumping curbs for ever. Now all of a sudden, this one single race has FIVE cars - four during the race - explode their left rear tire. Yet, it's the driver's fault. Uh huh. :rolleyes:

Yeah, really. You might need to learn a little bit more about the sport. It ain't as simple as you think. The curbs weren't an issue last year, but they were this year. What changed? The tire carcass construction. Not an issue for last years tires, but it was for these. And it wasn't every curb on the track; a couple of them have been identified as problematic.

Note that in the race, the team engineers were increasing the tire pressures, to move the contact patch away from the inside edge (a function of the camber they run) and more towards the center. They also instructed the drivers to stay off of the curbs in certain corners.

The info is out there, if you want to look it up. You might start here: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/108479

Damage from curbs is not a new issue, nor is it restricted to cars. The FIA has curb designs standards for races they sanction, the FIM has different standards for motorcycle races and they conflict in various ways with those of the FIA. It makes it tough for tracks that want to hold both top-level car and bike racing.

JR

Jeez, dog, calm down. Or go bark somewhere else. Scott knows plenty about F1 and most racing.

AFA tire construction goes, I wonder what's different from the tires used at Monaco beyond the obvious compound changes. At Monaco they really jump the curbs. And was it Cataluna where a couple of guys got nearly a foot off the ground?

L. Diffy announces what he hears. He in himself is not the authority on tires and why they failed.

Don't patronize me. I have the info. I'll quote:

Race director Charlie Whiting has admitted he nearly red-flagged the race while the FIA has asked the Italian manufacturer to attend their Sporting Working Committee at Silverstone on Wednesday to do some explaining.


and

FIA race director Charlie Whiting admits he nearly brought the British GP to a halt after four drivers saw one of their rear tyres explode.

Lewis Hamilton, Felipe Massa, Jean-Eric Vergne and Sergio Perez all had their races stymied by left-rear tyre failures, with the quartet lucky to remain some semblance of control of their cars during the incidents.

With tyres puncturing with such regularity, concern for the safety of the drivers grew, and Whiting reveals that when Perez's tyre blew on lap 46, he considered red flagging the race.

"It was quite close to being red flagged. It did occur to me to do that," said Whiting.

"I don't want to put figures on it, but it was close," he added of how many punctures would have ended the race.

"I don't think we've seen anything like this (in F1 history). I can't remember anything. To have four total catastrophic failures, I believe, is a first."

and from Pirelli

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.

and your own statement:

The curbs weren't an issue last year, but they were this year. What changed? The tire carcass construction. Not an issue for last years tires, but it was for these.


Pirelli most certainly DO and ARE being forced to explain this issue to the FIA.


Formula one has never had this number of similar catastrophic blowouts in one race. Not only that, it was always the same tire - left rear. The teams and drivers have all said, and history has shown, that the Silverstone curbs have not caused this sort of issue before, at least not to this extent.


So what is the basic culprit? This year's tire construction. The tire's construction this year has created a vulnerability to being cut on the inside during curb jumping, a problem that has rarely occurred in the past, other than at some notable tracks with curbs specifically designed to discourage their use. This is not a normal vulnerability for an F1 tire, and is why every team up and down the pit lane, the FIA, and race director Charlie Whiting himself became alarmed to the extent that Charlie nearly stopped the race.


The bandaid measures of adding two pounds of pressure (highly irregular in F1, where pressure increments are made in fractions of a pound) and asking drivers to avoid curbs that have never caused a problem before were simply measures to try to avoid more blowouts.


Therefore, the FIA has called Pirelli in for some explaining on Wednesday.

It was also reported that vettels lr tire had many cuts in it and they avoided a blowout by getting him changed early....luck really.....I think the organizers handled it well as it was something new.....
As hobbo said I've never seen that many marshalls on a track at once when they were doing a quick cleanup.....

1. I'm not sure Scott is up to speed on current events in F1, at least when I read his initial response. Read it again, it's overly-simplistic viewpoint is what I was questioning.

2. Pirelli used Kevlar belts in last year's tires, as opposed to the steel belts used this year. They wanted to bring Kevlar-belted tires to Silverstone this year but the teams basically blocked them. They changed their bonding method instead, as a next-best alternative. You find it odd that the FIA has now changed it's tune about using a 2013 car for tire testing, or that the teams are *****ing at Pirelli, after blocking Pirelli's move to prevent this exact problem? I do.

3. I have no idea why you mention Leigh, as I didn't bring up anything he said...

JR

Read the Autosport article and see if that changes your viewpoint.

In the wider world of motorsport, it's often not the curb itself that is the issue, but the back side of the curb, or what is inside of the curb, that is the problem. Curbs are designed to be "hit" in a specific way. It's not a new issue; there is some track every year where it is a problem.

JR

it reminded me of a NASCAR race...
a few tire failures and occasional yellow flag laps to bunch up the field.

I'd rather see the cars race and not win through attrition from faulty tires.
Many teams came in early for tires and changed how they raced due to tire concerns.
It was a bit of a tire lottery, it queered the race. :mad:

Think the tire guys will try to blame the gators or curbing? ;)

I saw that and clicked away just in time.
Amatuer move for them at best.

Wait a minute now, I think you have it backwards. In fact the autosport link you posted states as much. Steel is being this year, Kevlar was used last year:

Just so we're all on the same page. :)

Gorthar has it correct, steel belts in 2013... Pirelli wants to implement the Kevlar belts again now and that is the major design change of the tires MGP tested as well as the tires Pirelli gave out in FP at Silverstone.

Hopefully the FIA, Pirelli and Bernie can just call for the change and let's get on with racing...

This whole situation underlines the need for in season testing for crying out loud! According to press releases there will be 6(?) in season tests next year... They will need them with the new engines and entirely new cars of the '14 regulations...

I thought the thing Pirelli changed for Silverstone was the glue compound to adhere the steel belts to the tire wear layer.

Well, he covered all the statements you have made and during the race. But, that's what he's paid to do. So we can conclude that the current belts are good enough for everywhere but the high speeds of Silverstone? I do understand that the drivers were using the turn out rumble strips exiting at high speeds. With the car loaded like that one can assume the tires were deformed a bit and the strips were attacking the sidewall.

That alone may have been the reason to inflate to higher pressures and nothing to do with inside tread wear. That was so last week. ;):D

Java, or JR. My overly simplistic reply (as you put it) was simply a statement of fact. Pirelli will have explaining to do.

You were and are trying to explain to me about F1 and curbs and backsides, and steel belts vs. Kevlar belts, etc.

This info is not new to me. I am aware of the (disputed) illegal tire testing done by Brawn's team in an older car, in order to gain data supposedly for tire safety. I am aware of the changes in tire construction.

However, what you don't seem to be understanding is that my statement is that Pirelli will have explaining to do to the FIA on Wednesday as to how THEIR tire design became so vulnerable to normal curbing maneuvers. The facts appear to show that this year's tire is particularly vulnerable to damage on the inboard side of the tire due to curbing (yes, I AM aware that there can be edges on the insides of curbs that can damage a tire, but this issue has only popped up this year with this tire at this track, and it happened with the best drivers in the world driving).

I thought that's what I heard Martin Brundle say, too.

Yeah, you're right, I typed it backwards. Now fixed...

JR

Yes, because their original proposal was blocked by a few of the teams. Their preferred solution was to change the tire construction to one like they used last year, for this specific race.

JR

I just find it ironic that Pirelli is taking it up the backside from the teams, drivers and general public, for this problem, in light of the fact that they wanted to make a change for this race that might likely have prevented it and were prevented from doing so by the teams. And, the FIA reprimands them for a tire test that they ran to work on the safety of their product, as used, then 10 days later thinks more testing is a great idea.

JR