The only note of reluctance was sounded by Vijay Mallya, Force India’s team
principal, who suggested that the tyre blowouts were not as dangerous as
drivers were making out.
“Other than the car behind and the driver who might get a bit startled with
the sudden explosion in front, it really isn’t a major safety issue from
that point of view,” Mallya said.
“We didn’t see cars wildly spinning off and crashing into the barriers.
“But Pirelli needs to do what it needs to do and work with the various
teams to come up with an appropriate solution. There is no question of this
team being irresponsible in any way, and objecting for the sake of objecting
to any proposed change that impacts on safety in Formula 1 – no question.
“However, if we believe that a few teams have understood the tyres
better, and are able to manage the tyres better, without compromising
safety, why should we vote for change?”
Pirelli have been asked to attend a meeting of Formula One’s Sporting Working
Group on Wednesday to discuss the crisis and Red Bull chief technical
officer Adrian Newey was among those to have hit out at the
“short-sightedness” of those blocking the modifications.
“It’s a sad state of affairs but such is the nature of Formula One,
really,” Newey said. “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.”
Newey added: “It’s a concern for the whole paddock, primarily from a
safety point of view, but then also if the championship ends up being
decided by random tyre failures then it wouldn’t be a very satisfying
championship.
“Safety wise, there are two issues: there’s the car that has the failure
having an accident. But also you have three kilos of tread flying around and
if that hits the following car in the helmet it doesn’t bear thinking
about.”