There will be no changes to the planned tyre compounds at the British Grand Prix this weekend at the second of the Formula One races at Silverstone Circuit according to tyre manufacturer Pirelli.
Investigations following the rapid tyre degradation and deflation of both Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team cars and the McLaren F1 Team car of Carlos Sainz Jr. concluded that the failures were down to the race circumstances of each driver which led to an excessively longer stint on the second set of tyres together with the increased pace and forces felt by the 2020 cars. Lewis Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas and Sainz were the notable casualties of the rapid deflation.
The safety car at around 40 laps to go, prompted teams to make their second pit stops which allowed the tyres to be used for longer than what is recommended by Pirelli. Hamilton successfully navigated his Mercedes to victory on three wheels with the left front starting to rapidly deflate with half the lap distance to go. Hamilton recorded a top speed of 230 kph nursing the deflating tyre down the Hangar Straight into the final complex of corners whilst Max Verstappen was chasing him down. Meanwhile Bottas dropped down the order to 11th place and Sainz’s tyre shredded and left him down in 14th.
For the second race at Silverstone this weekend, Pirelli confirmed the nominated compounds: C2, C3, and C4, being one step softer than those seen last weekend.
Before the weekend starts the usage prescription will be reviewed by Pirelli and it will be hoped the minimum tyre pressures will also be increased to reduce the overall stress on the tyre construction.
