With Formula One thrown into crisis following the British Grand Prix the FIA have finally made some changes.
All the proposed changes do need the approval of the World Motor Sport Council, but that isn’t believed to be an issue and should just be a matter of formality.
Formula One politics had started to interfere with the safety of the sport with three teams Ferrari, Lotus and Force India blocking the changes that Pirelli wanted to make to their tyres following a multitude of failures which culminated in six tyre failures during the British Grand Prix on Sunday.
Those teams had argued that they were on top of the issues in regards to the high degradation levels [although Felipe Massa was a victim on Sunday], but the need for a unanimous agreement between the teams has been taken away by the FIA, opening the door for Pirelli to revise their compounds and constructions in a bid to prevent the same issues happening again.
Four of those tyre blowout on Sunday happened at high speed, but thankfully, Formula One avoided any serious incidents, with the drivers managing to control their cars, while debris also didn’t cause too many issues, despite one incident spraying Kimi Raikkonen’s helmet with rubber.
But many drivers including Lewis Hamilton called for changes to happen due to safety concerns.
With Pirelli given the chance to change their tyres, the Italian tyre manufacturer of course needs data to develop new tyres presumably for this season and beyond. To aid in this development, next months Young Drivers Test at Silverstone has been opened up to all drivers to complete tyre testing.
The session could also be increased by a day to make sure that enough running is completed so that this issue, which even saw the suggestion of a boycott can be dealt with as quickly as possible.
‘Our priority is to ensure safety for all in Formula 1 and we believe the incidents at Silverstone represent a genuine safety concern for the drivers,’ FIA President Jean Todt said in a statement published on Sky Sports.
‘We have thus taken the decision to alter the Young Driver Test to allow teams to use drivers they deem fit to carry out tyre development work in a bid to solve the problems we saw at the British Grand Prix. I believe it is fitting to carry out this work at the circuit upon which the issues were manifested.’
Mercedes however will still not take part after they were banned from the test following an FIA tribunal which looked into their Pirelli tyre test in May which had followed previous tyre failures.
