05-07-2013, 12:32 PM
Tbh, all this Pirelli bashing is irrelevant and nonsense. The FIA and Ecclestone set out guidelines for tyre durability which started this mess. Then after issues were appearing with delamination, Pirelli tried to combat this by producing a new kind of tyre, and a new lamination process. They tried to test tyres (with Mercedes) and there was a furore about in season testing. They tried the new compounds and constructions in Canada and three teams voted against the change. The very next race AFTER Pirelli made genuine attempts to correct what have been season long issues, tyres start blowing up. Hardly Pirellis fault, they've known about issues for a while and have been trying to correct them.
Also, everyone knows what happens to a tyre that's run outwith its operating parameters. Do the VW boys complain to Falken/Toyo/whoever if their tyres get shredded with 10deg neg camber? No, it's their fault for running the tyres like that. Likewise with running asymmetrical tyres the wrong way round, yeah they work, but if anything bad happens it's not the tyre manufacturer's fault, it's the moron who mounted it the wrong way round.
Teams were only ever advised how to run the tyres, if they wanted to run them out of operating range then they could but failures would be scrutinised and the team would be blamed. Pirelli recommended how to run the tyres and teams ignored them.
The only difference with Charlie Whiting's memo is that teams now HAVE to run them as per safe guidelines.
Look at it this way.. if a car with excessive camber and back to front tyres and low pressures were to lose control and hit a kid or something, the first place the Police would look is at the USE of the tyre. They'd only consider the manufacturer to be at fault if the tyre was being used correctly, at which point they'd then look into the possibility of a manufacturing defect. If however they found the tyres to be mounted in an abnormal way, they'd contact the manufacturer and say "look, we've had a blowout, the car had x amount of camber, the tyres were mounted the wrong way round, he runs his tyres at 16psi, could this cause the tyre to fall apart?".. at which point the manufacturer would say "well we say to run the tyres this way round, with this kind of pressure in a car of that size etc".
The blame would solely be at the car operator's door.
And Piggy, I hope you were sarcastic there about Michelin. Either that or you've not been an F1 fan long enough to remember the USGP of 2005...
Also, everyone knows what happens to a tyre that's run outwith its operating parameters. Do the VW boys complain to Falken/Toyo/whoever if their tyres get shredded with 10deg neg camber? No, it's their fault for running the tyres like that. Likewise with running asymmetrical tyres the wrong way round, yeah they work, but if anything bad happens it's not the tyre manufacturer's fault, it's the moron who mounted it the wrong way round.
Teams were only ever advised how to run the tyres, if they wanted to run them out of operating range then they could but failures would be scrutinised and the team would be blamed. Pirelli recommended how to run the tyres and teams ignored them.
The only difference with Charlie Whiting's memo is that teams now HAVE to run them as per safe guidelines.
Look at it this way.. if a car with excessive camber and back to front tyres and low pressures were to lose control and hit a kid or something, the first place the Police would look is at the USE of the tyre. They'd only consider the manufacturer to be at fault if the tyre was being used correctly, at which point they'd then look into the possibility of a manufacturing defect. If however they found the tyres to be mounted in an abnormal way, they'd contact the manufacturer and say "look, we've had a blowout, the car had x amount of camber, the tyres were mounted the wrong way round, he runs his tyres at 16psi, could this cause the tyre to fall apart?".. at which point the manufacturer would say "well we say to run the tyres this way round, with this kind of pressure in a car of that size etc".
The blame would solely be at the car operator's door.
And Piggy, I hope you were sarcastic there about Michelin. Either that or you've not been an F1 fan long enough to remember the USGP of 2005...
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