Almost two weeks later, Pirelli has been able to announce that they have reached a first accurate conclusion about the unexpected punctures suffered by several drivers during the Qatar Grand Prix race, the penultimate race of this tight schedule.
Arriving at a new circuit can always bring surprises and, in this case, it was one of the worst. Despite collecting as much data as possible and choosing the hardest tire range, some teams and drivers were caught off guard by totally unexpected punctures during the race at the Losail track.
As some of the protagonists such as Valtteri Bottas or Lando Norris explained after the race, neither with their sensations at the wheel nor from the wall of their teams could they foresee these blowouts, so that was the main reason that worried the drivers a lot. , even demanding an immediate investigation from Pirelli as did the British McLaren.
Seen what was seen, the Italian tire supplier had no choice but to investigate what happened on the track and confirmed it that same Sunday, but it was not until this Friday, almost two weeks after the event, when they shared the results of an analysis which is still “in progress”.
This was explained by Pirelli F1 through an official statement:
“Based on the findings so far, the source of the problem is primarily due to the amount of time these tires were in contact with curbs, at high speeds, and with considerable lateral and vertical loads – a unique situation at Losail.” .
“The necessity caused by running over curbs constantly, something that was not possible to measure with the data available before the race, damaged the tire construction and caused a loss of pressure in the inner sidewall, which caused the structure of the compound will collapse after several seconds”.
As reported by the official Formula 1 tire supplier at the end of said statement, both the FIA and all the teams have been informed in detail of all the studies and conclusions they have drawn from the surprising punctures at the Qatar GP .
However, it is practically the same explanation that was given several hours after seeing the punctures at Losail: Pirelli could not gauge how aggressive the curbs were on the Qatari track and the drivers abused them, as would be expected on a track with asphalt loopholes that allow you to push in search of the limit during each and every one of the laps.
