The FIA has been prompted to take action forward of the dash race day on the Losail circuit following issues concerning the danger of tyre failures within the race.
Submit-session evaluation that Pirelli carried out of tyres following operating at Qatar on Friday evening had uncovered a sidewall separation between the topping compound and the carcass cords on rubber that had run for an extended period.
MORE: How Pirelli discovered F1’s biggest tyre drama since the 2005 US GP
It has been suspected that the injury has been triggered by automobiles hitting the excessive pyramid kerbs beneath heavy g-loading at Turns 12/13/14 of the Losail circuit.
From Saturday’s operating, monitor limits have been revised at this space of the monitor and, for Sunday’s grand prix, a three-stop race may very well be mandated with drivers restricted to not operating any set of tyres for greater than 20 laps.
Talking concerning the discovery of the issue, Isola stated that the injury was so small that it was not noticeable to anybody previous to the tyres being minimize open as a part of its customary evaluation carried out after every day of operating.
“If I minimize the tyre and I present you the part, you can’t see any injury,” he defined. “It’s so small, that clearly we are able to discover the injury with a microscope.
“So, it is not a problem that we’re saying, guys listen as a result of we now have a giant difficulty now. It is an initiation, it is a sign, however clearly we can not ignore it. That is why I reported what we discovered after our evaluation [to the FIA].”
Qatar’s pyramid kerbs
Picture by: Alex Kalinauckas
Pirelli suspects that the problem has been triggered by the truth that the pyramid kerbs – which have been revised for this yr’s occasion – are successfully hammering tyres at a degree the place they’re vulnerable to wreck.
Isola added: “The difficulty is – to offer you an [explanation] that isn’t lots technical however in all probability clearer – it’s like should you take a hammer with a pyramid on the high, and also you hit it in opposition to the sidewall for 100 instances per second for an extended interval.
“The compound is the weaker half. You could have the chord of the carcass that’s made with textile materials and is much more resistant. So, it’s not a matter of fatigue. Fatigue is when you may have the development with fatigue [and] additionally the chord is affected.
“On this case, we don’t have a problem with the development. It’s simply the truth that you may have a repeated influence on the sidewall that affects the resistance of the compound, localised the place you may have the chord.”
The difficulty has solely proven up in tyres which have accomplished greater than 20 laps, so Isola has stated he’s assured there can be no points for Saturday’s dash race, which runs to 19 laps.