Despite the changes Pirelli have made in the aftermath of the British Grand Prix, the drivers are still threatening a boycott of this weekends race in Germany.
However, the drivers will only pull out of the race if there is a repeat of the tyre failures over the course of the weekend.
Which in all honesty is a fair comment to make, they are of course the ones risking their lives at 190mph, when all of a sudden their tyre could explode hurtling them into a barrier. Or of course like Kimi Raikonnen and Fernando Alonso at Silverstone, they could simply just be following behind someone who suffers a failure and are then sprayed with debris, which could inflict serious injury, not only to the other drivers, but track marshals and spectators.
Thankfully though the changes that Pirelli have made ahead of this weekends race should be enough to avoid a repeat of the dangerous and farcical scenes we saw last weekend.
The teams seem to be happy and in truth so do the drivers who released a statement on Thursday.
‘We trust that the changes made to the tyres will have the desired results and that similar problems will not occur during the German GP weekend.
‘We are ready to drive our cars to the limit, as we always do, and as it is expected by our teams, sponsors and fans. the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association released to Sky Sports.
But the statement did also include a warning, that they would not hesitate to withdraw from the race if a repeat of last weekend did occur: ‘However, the drivers have decided that, if similar problems should manifest themselves during the German GP, we shall immediately withdraw from the event, as this avoidable problem with the tyres endangers again the lives of drivers, marshals and fans.’
The threat of course is that the tyres the teams will be running this weekend are untested by Pirelli. They are the tyres they wanted to introduce ahead of the British Grand Prix, but the weather in Canada prevented sufficient testing and the teams failed to unanimously approve the change.
In a few weeks time for the Hungarian Grand Prix, Pirelli will have had enough time to develop a new tyre, whilst this feels like a temporary measure.
It should still be enough, especially with characteristics of the Nurburgring and Fernando Alonso, who was one of the drivers who suffered a tyre failure in Silverstone seems content to race.
‘It was a dangerous situation [at the British Grand Prix].
‘I committed to overtake Sergio [Perez] on the left. I was lucky because maybe if I chose the right, everything would hit my helmet [when the McLaren’s tyre exploded].
‘There are pieces of steel coming at 300kph so it would be like a bullet or a knife.’
‘Pirelli made some changes. We trust them. We think they solve the problem.’ he told the BBC.
