MOTORSPORT: Exploding rubber and records

Mark Webber came from 15th soon after the start at Silverstone to finish second in his final British GP, having announced before the weekend that he will bow out of F1 at the end of the season to join Porsche’s new sports car program.

Daniel Ricciardo, Western Australia’s F1 driver who turns 24 today, was unlucky to finish only eighth at Silverstone after being fourth at the final restart.

Webber has endorsed Ricciardo as his replacement but there may be a lot of water to go under the bridge yet, with Kimi Raikkonen, Ricciardo’s Toro
Rosso teammate Jean-Eric Vergne, perhaps Jenson Button and maybe others – including Nico Hulkenberg – in the race for that plum drive.

Five drivers had left-rear tyres explode in the British race and there were worrying signs on those of race winner Nico Rosberg and Sebatsian Vettel, who had been on course for victory until his gearbox failed 10 laps from the finish.

The explosions came at more than 200kmh and sent chunks of rubber flying into the path of following cars – immensely dangerous, even potentially lethal, if a driver had been struck.

“It [the race] was quite close to being red-flagged,” race director Charlie Whiting said, calling the tyre failures “catastrophic”.

F1’s monopoly tyre supplier Pirelli is under even greater pressure now, but Gary Anderson – designer for the Jordan team that is now Force India and these days the F1 technical analyst for the BBC – said he had found the ridge of the kerb at turn four of the circuit, where two of the blow-outs happened, to be “razor sharp”.

The same tyre compounds will have to be used at next Sunday’s German GP at the Nurburgring but there is pressure to change them, or revert to last year’s, for the rest of the season, especially with visits for two more exceptionally high-speed circuits, Belgium’s Spa and Italy’s Monza, coming up in the next few weeks.

“We have seen something new [with tyre behavior at Silverstone], a different type of problem,” Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery said.

“It was one tyre – at the back, left rear – so we need to understand that. We can exclude that the new bonding process, which we introduced at this race, is a cause. There might be some aspect to this circuit that impacts specifically on the latest version of our tyres.

“It’s pointless me adding anything else until we have all the facts.”

Christian Horner, boss of Webber and Vettel’s Red Bull Racing, and his revered technical director Adrian Newey, have led the chorus calling for the rubber to be harder and last longer.

“This is a Pirelli issue -they need to find a solution, they need to address it,” Horner said.

“Whether they go back to last year’s tyre or a different tyre, they need a solution. The most logical thing would be to go back to the tyres that worked well for them previously.

“The tyres they had last year did not have these failures.”

Newey accused some rival teams of “short-sightedness” in blocking Pirelli’s plans for change before last month’s Canadian GP.

“It’s a sad state of affairs, but such is the nature of F1,” Newey said.

“It’s been fairly clear that there has been a number of worrying tyre failures through the year. Pirelli came out with a solution to that – or appear to have come up with a solution - with a different construction that was being offered initially for Montreal.

“Two or three teams vetoed that because they were worried that it would suit some other teams more than it would suit them and, as a result of that short-sightedness, we end up with F1 putting on the worrying performance that it did today and concerns over driver safety.

“From what I understand of it, had we gone to the different construction then we wouldn’t have had the sort of catastrophic failures that we have had today. Safety wise there are potentially two issues - there’s the car that has the failure having an accident due to that failure, but also suddenly you’ve got three kg or so of tread flying around. If that hits the following driver on the helmet it doesn’t bear thinking about.”

Niki Lauda, the triple world champion driver now chairman of the victorious Mercedes team, agreed with Horner that “if they technically cannot fix the problem they should bring last year’s tyre”.

“This has to happen,” Lauda said.

Lewis Hamilton had the first blowout just eight laps into the race as he led from pole position and appeared headed for his first win since joining Mercedes from McLaren.

Ferrari’s Felipe Massa, Toro Rosso’s Vergne, Sauber’s Esteban Gutierrez and McLaren’s Sergio Perez had the same problem. Massa came out best, recovering to finish sixth.

“It was nearly a really special day, but it was still a nice day,” Webber said of his fifth consecutive podium at Silverstone.

“It would have been nice to have had a few more laps.”

One or two laps may have been enough for the Aussie to catch and overtake Rosberg. Webber set the fastest lap of the race on the last as he chased the German, who was his teammate years ago at Williams and who has now won twice in the past three GPs.

Now F1 heads immediately to Nurburgring, scene of Webber’s first F1 victory four years ago and the home race for Rosberg and Mercedes.

After a wet lead-in to the British race the weather gods shone on race day, turning on the hottest day of the year in England, but  Webber had another terrible getaway.

“I don’t know what happened at the start - we’ve been really good away from the line in the last few races, but when the lights went out I went backwards today,” Webber said.

“I haven’t got a clue why that happened and the situation was made worse by contact with (Romain) Grosjean [Lotus] at the first corner, which damaged the front wing and dropped me way down the order.”

Webber was back into the top 10 by lap eight and the two periods under caution and behind the safety car brought him within striking distance of the leaders with 10 laps to go.

“It was one of the best strategies we’ve done, but there’s no doubt we were helped by the safety cars,” Webber said.

“I was praying for a safety car, but no one wants them for the reasons that they were occurring. When you have tyre failures like that you know you could be next, and that you’re playing Russian Roulette, but I still made the best of the safety cars.

“When the race went green for the final time I was lying fifth and ready to challenge the cars in front.”

Webber promptly overtook Daniel Ricciardo, Adrian Sutil’s Force India and Kimi Raikkonen’s Lotus and with five laps to go was second, with only Rosberg ahead.

“With 10 laps to go, when you can see the win in sight, you have mixed feelings about finishing 0.7s behind the race winner, but Nico also drove well - he deserved the win and Mercedes are clearly making progress. They’ve always had a quick car in qualifying and they now have good race pace too.

“But overall I’m still happy with my weekend. I was happy with my performance and you should never take finishing high up for granted. I enjoyed racing in front of the British fans – they’ve always given me a lot of support over the years and it’s always been a real highlight to race at Silverstone.”

Fellow Aussie Ricciardo scored world championship points for the third time this season but he regarded the race as something of a lost opportunity.

“I lost a bit of time at both pit stops,” Ricciardo said. “And at the end we were on used tyres, and those who had changed [tyres] for a third time were able to pass me.

“Eighth is a good result, but I see it as a missed opportunity to score more points because today we were quicker than the Ferraris – so to finish behind them, particularly Massa who had a tyre problem [but finished sixth, while Fernando Alonso was third and close to within 21 points championship leader Vettel] is a bit disappointing.

“I just had normal [tyre] degradation, but [the succession of tyre explosions] was a little bit dangerous.”

Toro Rosso chief Franz Tost said the team’s Ferrari-engined cars had clearly improved recently but he was disappointed not to have had greater reward at Silverstone.

“Daniel lost time at the first pit stop when we struggled to get one wheel off the car and that lost him track position,” Tost said. “Then at the second stop we had to delay his release as another car was coming in, again losing about three seconds.

“Finally, with the last safety car we had a difficult choice to make, as his tyres were old and we did not have others that were particularly new to put on, but the guys behind did pit for newer tyres and inevitably they managed to get past.”

Webber said at the weekend that Ricciardo was “in the box seat” to replace him.

“He deserves it ... he’s done the yards over here in Europe early doors,” Webber said. “He’s been on the canvas a few times and got back up – and that’s part of the rules.

“Daniel knows it will be a different challenge in a team like Red Bull Racing ... the pressure changes. [But] who knows what is going to happen.”

Ricciardo – still two points behind Vergne in the world championship, despite the Frenchman not finishing at Silverstone - said he was “not going to get my hopes up” about the Red Bull seat.

“I’ve still got to perform and produce what I’ve got to do, and if it all works out then that will be exciting,” he said.

Webber will depart before the introduction next season of 1.6-litre V6 turbocharged engines, for which testing will be allowed in January rather than waiting until the traditional February.

Four two-day track tests also will be allowed next year during the championship and a demerit points system will be introduced for drivers, with an automatic one-race ban once they accumulate 12 points for offences that will incur one to three points.

Mercedes has moved up to second in the constructors’ championship, three points ahead of Ferrari but 48 adrift of Red Bull.

McLaren is languishing sixth on that table after its second straight race without points, while Williams remains without a point this season.

Kimi Raikkonen’s fifth place earned him world championship points for the 25th straight race, breaking a record of Michael Schumacher.

Formula One drivers’ world championship after eight of 19 rounds - 1. Sebastian Vettel (Germany, Red Bull-Renault) 132 points; 2. Fernando Alonso (Spain, Ferrari) 111; 3. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland, Lotus-Renault) 98; 4. Lewis Hamilton (Great Britain, Mercedes) 89; 5. Mark Webber (Australia, Red Bull-Renault) 87; 6. Nico Rosberg (Germany, Mercedes) 82; 7. Felipe Massa (Brazil, Ferrari) 57; 8. Paul Di Resta (GB, Force India-Mercedes) 36; 9. Romain Grosjean (France, Lotus-Renault) 26; 10. Jenson Button (GB, McLaren-Mercedes) 25; 11. Adrian Sutil (Germany, Force India-Mercedes) 23; 12. Jean-Eric Vergne (France, Toro Rosso-Ferrari) 13; 13. Sergio Perez (Mexico, McLaren-Mercedes) 12; 14. Daniel Ricciardo (Australia, Toro Rosso-Ferrari) 11; 15. Nico Huelkenberg (Germany, Sauber-Ferrari) 6.
      
F1 constructors’ championship - 1. Red Bull-Renault 219; 2. Mercedes 171; 3. Ferrari 168; 4.  Lotus-Renault 124; 5. Force India-Mercedes 59; 6. McLaren-Mercedes 37; 7. Toro Rosso-Ferrari 24; 8. Sauber-Ferrari 6.
      

Loeb slashed more than 1½ minutes off the record for the climb – which for two years has been completely sealed – set last year by New Zealander Rhys Millen.

“I tried to be a bit careful because there was no possibility to make a mistake on a race like this,” Loeb said of the 156-turn climb.
Millen clocked 9 minutes 2.192 seconds in his Hyundai RMR PM580-T – about 45 seconds faster than he went last year.

“Sebastien was in a league of his own,” Millen said.

Japan’s “Monster” Tajima broke the 10-minute barrier in the electric car class. Tajima’s E-Runner, built by his own company, clocked 9:46.53.

Elsewhere in the US at the weekend Australian Marcos Ambrose finished 13th in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup round at Kentucky Speedway after having qualified fifth in his Ford Fusion. Matt Kenseth scored his fourth win of the season in a Toyota ahead of Jamie McMurray in a Chevrolet.

Toyota filled three of the top five spots, with Clint Bowyer and Kyle Busch third and fifth, sandwiching the Ford of Joey Lagano.

Read the latest news and reviews on your mobile, iPhone or PDA at carsales' mobile site…