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Max blames Pirelli for ‘life-threatening’ blowout

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Monty:

--- Quote ---Maybe Red Bull will buy the intellectual property from Pirelli and start making their own tires! Seems to have worked well for their engine.
--- End quote ---
...by poaching their staff by paying salaries two to three times higher  :confused:


--- Quote ---Those accidents were not driver error or track debris issues, the tires failed at speed.
--- End quote ---
Everything I have read suggests that Pirelli tests proved that the tyre failures were caused by debris. Other (older) tyres were also checked and were still in 'perfect' condition.

Alianora La Canta:
Two tyres failed, and another one was very close to failing. If the cause is batch inconsistency or tyre inability to handle slight variations in how tyres are treated, having the other tyres hold up doesn't prove anything. The tyre graphic has repeatedly been shown to be useless (Hamilton's tyre at the 2019 British Grand Prix showed as having 30% tyre left after it exploded, whereas tyres routinely hit 20% and sometimes 10% with no problem). On the other hand, track debris could be an issue because the track was not tidied as thoroughly as I would have liked. We need a lot more information before we can either clear or condemn the tyres.

That Red Bull chose not to wait, given they already waited several days, is a shame. (Pirelli has not completed its analysis yet, which is due between now and Thursday; its interim suggestion of debris was a working hypothesis based on information initially available, even though it is not clear if debris was even plausible for both failures).

The 40-laps thing is a misnomer because that's meant to cover core wear-based failures, and Verstappen wasn't picking up signs of heavy wear prior to the crash. It could be wear-based specific component failure, or an interruption of the usual process (e.g. by debris or an unaccounted physical process like unexpected localised heat bubbles in the tyre shoulder).

F1's had a problem finding tyre suppliers for the last 11 years, but that's because the FIA insists on a totally unsuitable tyre specification document and only Pirelli is willing to put up with the problems associated with that. (Changes have been made at various points, but never to the parts that caused the actual problem). I suspect that if Pirelli had a decent tyre specification document to work with, they'd produce decent tyres, like they do the British GT and Ferrari Challenge.

The FIA is unlikely to allow Red Bull to make tyres for F1, even if it goes to the trouble of kitting itself out for that purpose. Rather, the Federation is trying to mandate single-manufacturer tyre supplies wherever possible "to save costs", and neither will it allow any potential replacement for Pirelli to change the FIA's control of the tyre specification document.

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