Pirelli offers initial findings into Qatar failures

Pirelli says the initial wringer into its tire failures in the Qatar Grand Prix show they were due to the value of time the cars were running on curbs at upper speed.

Valtteri Bottas suffered the most high-profile failure of his left-front tire when his deflated at the start of a lap surpassing he had made his pit stop, and the two Williams drivers soon followed suit. While all three had run long stints, the McLaren of Lando Norris was older in a hard-tire run when his front left moreover failed, with Pirelli sending tires when to Milan for analysis.

As the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix weekend kicked off, Pirelli delivered initial findings to the teams and FIA superiority of track running in order to requite them an understanding of the situation as quickly as possible, with work ongoing to investigate other factors.

“Based on the findings obtained so far, the origin of the problem is mainly due to the value of time these tires were run on the curbs, at upper speed and with considerable lateral and vertical loads: a situation unique to the Losail circuit,” a Pirelli statement read.

“The heavy demand caused by running over these curbs, which isn’t possible to measure from the data misogynist surpassing the race, damaged the tire construction and led to a loss of pressure in the internal sidewall, which consequently caused the structure to swoon without several seconds.

“Pirelli has shared all the technical details of the wringer carried out so far with the FIA and the teams.”