Pirelli launches urgent investigation into British F1 GP failures

Formula 1’s tyre supplier Pirelli has launched an urgent investigation to get to the bottom of the failures seen during the British Grand Prix.

Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas, as well as McLaren’s Carlos Sainz, all suffered similar front-left punctures in a dramatic conclusion to Sunday’s British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

Bottas’ tyre was the first to go on Lap 50, before Sainz and Hamilton’s failures followed. While Bottas and Sainz were forced to pit and dropped out of the points, Hamilton remarkably managed to limp home with only three tyres fully-inflated on the final lap of the race.

Pirelli boss Mario Isola said the Italian manufacturer will “analyse everything 360 degrees” and hopes to have an answer for the issues by Tuesday.

"We will obviously investigate what happened in the last few laps," Isola explained.

"It's a bit early now to give you any conclusion. It could be high wear, because for sure tyres with 38 laps or more on this circuit are quite worn, but I'm not saying that the wear is the cause of the issue.

"It can be debris, because we had the pieces of the front wing of Kimi that were on track, but also some other debris.

"So that's why we want to investigate not only the tyres with a failure, but all the tyres used in the last few laps of the race, to understand if we find any other cut or any other possible indication on what happened.

"We don't want to exclude anything, we want to analyse everything 360 degrees and avoid excluding any possibility because it's a big mistake when you make these kinds of investigations. We have to consider all the possibilities.

"What we can do is to analyse the tyres from the race to understand if there is anything in the construction that was subject to excessive stress, or whatever, but this is one of the investigations."

Isola wants the investigation to be completed as quickly as possible ahead of a second consecutive race at Silverstone.

Pirelli has alternated its tyre selections for the two races at the same circuit, with softer compounds being used for this weekend’s 70th Anniversary Grand Prix.

"The level of wear is quite high, this is a factor, looking at the tyre from Grosjean the first stint. it was completely worn, and I had a look at some tyres coming also from the second stint, and the level of wear is close to 100%,” Isola added.

"Then we have to understand If this is the cause of the failures or not. What is clear is that when you have a tyre that is completely worn the protection of the tread on the construction is less.

"So if there is any debris, any small piece of carbon on track, it is easier to damage the tyre, because you don't have any rubber on the tyre that is protecting the cord, and some cords are visible on the tyres.

"So that's why I'm saying that the level of wear is close to 100%."