Pirelli hint tyre failures caused by kerbs and team strategy

Qatar Grand Prix

Pirelli hint tyre failures caused by kerbs and team strategy

Four tyres deflated spontaneously in Qatar

Ewan Gale

Sunday 21 November 2021 18:35

Make us your Google favorite

Pirelli F1 boss Mario Isola has hinted a mix of the ferocity of Losail's kerbs and teams running stints to the limit were behind the quartet of tyre failures at the Qatar Grand Prix.

Valtteri Bottas, Lando Norris, George Russell and Nicholas Latifi all suffered failures to the front-left tyre as they attempted to stretch their stints on one-stop strategies in the inaugural Qatari event.

Bottas' Mercedes was the first to suffer issues on lap 33 as his medium compound came undone, before Norris and then the two Williams drivers saw their hard tyres deflate late on.

Article continues under video

Addressing the failures, Isola said: "[The issues were on] the front-left because it was the most stressed tyre but I don't want to say that this was caused by excessive energy or something like that.

"The first elements I can share is that the tyres were quite worn, close to 100 per cent. There were cuts on the tyres that we have to understand, whether it was caused before the loss of pressure or after the loss of pressure.

"We are waiting for telemetry data from the teams because that is a really important element to understand, was the loss of pressure sudden or what was the time for that.

"All the drivers were able to go back to the pits so they lost pressure but in a time that was enough to control the car and go back to the pits.

"We have seen a lot of impact at high-speed on the kerbs here. It is not a secret we had also damages to the chassis, floor, wings and when the tyre is worn, it is less protected from kerbs, from big, high energy impacts and it can start losing pressure and you either change tyre or it runs flat."

Pirelli had set a suggestion of a two-stop strategy ahead of the race given concerns over tyre wear, with the coarse, abrasive track surface at Losail a known hazard given it has not been resurfaced since opening almost 18 years ago.

"A few teams were trying a one-stop strategy because here, it is difficult to overtake and didn't want to lose time in the pits but the reason we predicted a two-stop strategy was mainly because of the data we collected on tyre wear on Friday," added Isola.

"The wear on the front-left was quite high and the rear-left were both worn to 100 per cent.

"Why there was a puncture on the front-left has to be investigated."