Pirelli officials have had a lot to answer to following the Qatar Grand Prix after numerous drivers encountered fatal issues with their front left tyres at the Losail Circuit.
After numerous punctures on Sunday, Pirelli chief Mario Isola said that they still need to carry out an in-depth investigation, but that their initial analysis showed the tyres were in fact nearly 100% worn.
“The front left is the most stressed tyre – I don’t want to say that this was caused by excessive energy or something like that,” Isola explained.
“The first elements that I can share with you are all the tyres were quite worn, close to 100%.
“We have cuts on the tyres that we have to understand if they were caused before the loss of pressure or after the loss of pressure.
“We are waiting for telemetry data from the teams, that is really important to understand if the loss of pressure was sudden.
“We have seen a lot of impacts and high speed on the kerbs here it’s not a secret that there was also damage to the chassis, to the floor, to the wings.
“When a tyre is worn, it’s less protected from kerbs, from big and high energy impact, then it can happen that they start losing pressure and at this point, you either have to change the tyre or they are flat.”
In defense of the issue, Isola then said the punctures occurred on the cars of those who were attempting to do a one-stop race after they were advised not to.
“The reason why we predicted a two-stop strategy was mainly from the data of tyre wear that we collected on Friday,” he concluded.
