Red Bull technical chief Adrian Newey on Monday attacked the “short-sightedness” of rival teams, Ferrari, Lotus and Force India, for blocking Pirelli’s planned introduction of new Formula One tyre constructions and blamed them for a safety crisis that has engulfed the sport.
Newey, the design genius behind Red Bull’s domination of the constructors’ and drivers’ championships for the past three years, said it was a sad when top teams vetoed change because they feared it would hand an advantage to their rivals.
In the wake of an extraordinary British Grand Prix, overshadowed by a series of high-speed tyre blow-outs and post-race drivers’ declarations that they might strike if the “unacceptable” circumstances were not addressed, Newey pinpointed the politics at the heart of the problems.
“It’s a sad state of affairs but such is the nature of Formula One, really.
“It’s been fairly clear that there’s been a number of worrying tyre failures through the year. Pirelli came up with a solution for that, with a different construction, and that was being offered initially for Montreal.
“But two or three teams vetoed that because they were worried it would suit some other teams more than it would suit them.
“As a result of that short-sightedness, Formula One ended up putting up the worrying performance it did (at Silverstone) and concerns about driver safety.”
Italian suppliers Pirelli wanted to change the internal structure of their tyres from one based on a steel belt to one made of Kevlar, from the Canadian Grand Prix to try to eradicate frequent problems with delamination as seen in several of the season-opening races.
But Force India, Lotus and Ferrari were reluctant to accept the modification, which needed unanimous approval from the teams and they blocked the moves, saying at the time that they felt changes to the tyres could cause them to lose their competitiveness.
The block on using the Kevlar belt caused Pirelli to give up their push for a new tyre construction and, instead, they worked on trying to improve the bonding process of their steel constructions.
In Sunday’s spectacular race, won by German Nico Rosberg for Mercedes, four dangerous tyre failures hit Rosberg’s teammate Briton Lewis Hamilton, while he led early in the race, Frenchman Jean-Eric Vergne of Toro Rosso and Mexican Sergio Perez of McLaren.
Each blowout created a spray of thick rubber and metal debris that flew in the air ahead of following drivers. Hamilton recovered to return to the pits and, after rejoining last, he fought through the field to finish fourth.
In the aftermath, Hamilton led a call by the drivers for the sport’s ruling body to tackle the problem.
Mark Webber finished just short of a remarkable and dramatic victory at Silverstone, Rosberg just holding out the retiring Australian.
Rosberg came home just seven-tenths of a second clear of Red Bull’s Webber.