Pirelli called to Sporting Committee meeting

In the wake of the farcical British Grand Prix, where six drivers suffered tyre failures during the race, Pirelli have been called by the FIA to a meeting ahead of the German Grand Prix this weekend.

To add to McLaren’s Sergio Perez’s tyre failure during practice, there was four more high speed tyre blow-outs during Sunday’s event.

Perez was the final victim, after Mercedes Lewis Hamilton was the first to suffer the fate whilst leading the race. Ferrari’s Felipe Massa spun while his tyre gave up on him mid-corner, whilst Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne also suffered a high speed explosion, showering the Lotus of Kimi Raikkonen in bits of tyre.

Other drivers also suffered problems, Sebastian Vettel’s Red Bull team complained of cuts on the tyre, whilst Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso suffered a puncture, but luckily for him he happened on the final turn before the pit entrance and his race was virtually unaffected.

Esteban Gutierrez of Sauber also suffered a tyre failure.

FIA President Jean Todt has called Pirelli to meet with the Sporting Committee on Wednesday in Nurburgring, no doubt to explain what went so catastrophically wrong on Sunday at Silverstone.

A number of drivers including Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa have moved to speak out about the tyres, with Hamilton calling them dangerous while Massa refused to rule out a potential boycott of the German race if something isn’t done to improve the drivers safety.

FIA race director Charlie Whiting admitted he was close to red flagging the race following the incidents, while team bosses appear unanimous in their view that something has to change.

‘F1 couldn’t possibly not respond to the events of this weekend. We’ve been lucky no-one has been hurt.’ McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh told the BBC, while Red Bull counterpart Christian Horner said to Sky Sports: ‘The most important thing is to understand the problem. Pirelli need to go away and reflect and understand what has happened. We need a solution because someone will get hurt if that keeps happening.

‘Something needs to be done.’

Due to the recent tyre controversies following Mercedes and Pirelli’s illegal test in May, Mercedes boss Ross Brawn wasn’t as forthright with his views, but still echoed the general points behind made.

‘I don’t want to comment until we get all the facts, but it is something we will have to have a serious look at.

‘Obviously we are at the centre of it following our Barcelona test, but you can see why we were concerned and wanted to do the work. We will have a proper look at it and see what we need to address.’

Pirelli released a statement following the race which read: Pirelli engineers will investigate closely the cause of the failures ahead of next week’s German Grand Prix.

Whilst Pirelli’s motorsport director Paul Hembery added: ‘We are taking the situation very seriously and we are currently investigating all tyres to determine the cause as soon as possible, ahead of the next Grand Prix in Germany. At the moment, we can’t really say much more until we have fully investigated and analysed all of these incidents, which is our top priority.