Teams could withdraw from the German GP, admits Whitmarsh

McLaren chief Martin Whitmarsh has admitted there is a danger that teams will boycott this week's German GP in the wake of the alarming tyre failures which blighted Sunday's British GP.

Four cars suffered blowouts during the grand prix while race victor Nico Rosberg was forced to take a precautionary pit-stop with just ten laps remaining due to damage to his left-rear compound.

The unsettling spectacle - causing severe reputational damage for both tyre supplier and sport - was branded "unacceptable" by Lewis Hamilton after he lost the lead of the race after becoming the first of the quartet to suffer a puncture.

With the next event, the German GP, less than a week away, the drastic possibility of a repeat of the 2005 U.S. GP, when all the Michelin-shod cars withdrew from the event, has already been openly mooted as F1 strives to prevent Sunday's explosive drama turning into a full-scale crisis.

"There is that danger [of a boycott] and rightly so if teams and drivers aren't convinced that they can [race] safely," Whitmarsh acknowledged to Sky Sports News. "But that's not what we want for Formula 1. We have faced some of these issues before at Indianapolis and that was terrible for the sport so we have really got to work together. This is not a time to point fingers, it's time to work together, find a solution and get on with it.

Pirelli have been summoned by FIA President Jean Todt to a meeting of the Sporting Committee on Wednesday and held emergency talks with both Todt and FIA Race Director Charlie Whiting on Sunday night at Silverstone.

Speaking to French television station Canal+, Todt said: "I had a meeting with officials from Pirelli who will obviously investigate all the incidents that occurred in recent days.

"They will come up with proposals for the important meeting with all the teams on Wednesday. From the moment there are safety issues we have to make the right decision, and not just respond emotionally.

"We must analyse things and let the experts come together to meet after that. It will allow us to make a final decision."

It emerged on Sunday night that Whiting considered red-flagging Sunday's grand prix before deploying the Safety Car in order for the circuit to be cleared of debris following the tyre blow-outs on Hamilton's Mercedes, the Ferrari of Felipe Massa and Jean-Eric Vergne's Toro Rosso.

"Four catastrophic failures is a first. It was quite close to being red-flagged," confirmed Whiting. "Quite clearly all that debris was putting people at risk."

Pirelli's investigation into the cause of the tyre failures - the last of which was suffered by McLaren's Sergio Perez after the second Safety Car interruption of the afternoon - was underway even before Rosberg crossed the line to claim his second victory in three races and the tyre makers have already ruled out the production changes introduced for the Silverstone event being a factor in the debacle.

"We can exclude that the new bonding process, which we introduced at this race, is at cause for the tyre failures we have seen today," motorsport chief Paul Hembery declared.

Among the options expected to be discussed at Wednesday's meeting is the immediate reversion to last year's tyres - a proposal already endorsed by Whitmarsh and his Red Bull counterpart, Christian Horner.

Ferrari Team Principal Stefano Domenicali has also suggested that the scheduled Young Driver Test later this month is scrapped in favour of a fully-fledged tyre test, although Whitmarsh has called for a more urgent remedy.

"I think something will have changed by Germany," said the McLaren chief. "I'm not considering that [withdrawing] at the moment, it's something all the teams and drivers will have to take a view on, but we have to support Pirelli and make sure we give them all the information and enough time to make the right decisions."

SOURCE: Sky Sports 

I honestly think this is just people assuming the worst again, I have heard all this before about teams not joining concord agreement and that a new F1 will be created with just manufacturers etc. This sounds the same again, although I do hope we get a solution and that seems likely given the amount of negative press Pirelli is getting right now. Expect to see new tyres being used there or maybe hard compounds used as well to reduce the possibility of issues. Also perhaps the circuit owners will check their arnco for rough edges and clear that away or what not.

Safety should always be put first but given cars were still racing in Silverstone, I doubt we will see a mass protest USA style given that was a battle between two manufacturers. There are many solutions and I feel we will see something done over a race being cancelled.

I don't feel it's anything to do with kerbs, it shows who uses their tyres the hardest, Merc (Rosberg) had issues, Massa, Vergne, Guttierez and Perez, other drivers didn't seem to suffer. BUT the point still stands, Drivers must need to feel the confidence to DRIVE these tyres, otherwise they'll be driving at what 50-60%!? Pirelli need to sort it out fast before someone gets hurt, Nurburgring and Hungaroring should be okay as there are no long enough sweeping corners to hurt the tyres that bad, But Spa will destroy them like Silverstone did. So a solution by then must be found! 

If it had something to do with kerbs, surely the GP2 cars would have been affected by it too.sambob530

Don't forget GP3 and Porsche Supercup. Anyway, here's how many teams that will boycott the German Grand Prix, zero. Mercedes GP is heading to its home race, is 2nd in the Constructors, and are coming off a win. Red Bull Racing is starting to see Mercedes GP as a threat and are doing all they can to maintain their current advantage in the points. Vettel wants to rebound from his retirement at Silverstone and he's coming to his home race, which he never won. Alonso is just 11 points behind Vettel now and wants to continue to chip away at the German's lead. Hamilton is itching for a win after having his almost certain victory at his home grand prix taken away from him by an exploding tire. Massa is fighting to keep his seat in Ferrari. Force India is 5th in the points and are ahead of McLaren. Di Resta is itching for a podium finish after coming close on different occasions. Both of the Toro Rosso drivers are fighting for a chance at getting a seat in Red Bull Racing. Marussia is still ahead of Catheram in their fight for the all-important 10th spot in the Constructors' standings. The teams and drivers have way too much to lose.

My impression is that the kerb at corner 4 has a sharp edge on the arnco and if you cut over it with the tyres being as they are in F1, that they are likely to get a cut leading to the blow outs we saw on the straight following on from that corner (I feel like everybody with a puncture had it happen on the same section of the circuit, to me that suggests it is not a coincidence, however I could be wrong as I am not super familiar with the new track layout at Silverstone). Pirelli need to sort something out, I agree on that, however when the technical analyst at the BBC says that the corner could be impacting the tyres then I will tend to put that into consideration as well.

I am not sure what the GP2 and GP3 cars run in tyres and I expect that the Porsche cars will run tyres designed for road cars compared to the tyres used on Formula cars (not road tyres of course but they will vary in design vastly to that of an F1 car I would expect, unless the Porsche cup is not what I am thinking, and they use open wheel cars on that). But my understanding from what was said on the BBC and what I read is that the tyres used by Pirelli in F1 have a weaker side wall and that combined with cutting over the corner and having the arnco essentially tear into the tyre wall causing a blow out is what was occurring. Ferrari, Force India, and I think Lotus are teams that have all turned down Pirelli's idea of using Kevlar instead of steel in the tyre (not sure how this works) as they feel it would be a disadvantage to them because they can manage the tyres where others can not, so it goes to show how much interest they have in this if they are prepared to continue on, I wander if Ferrari feel the same now after Massa suffered a blow out on this compound.

I do wander how much this will affect Pirelli getting the new tyre contract, they are getting screwed in the sense they were told to make the tyres less durable to make more pit stops occur as it was boring with the one pit stop races we were having before, but these tyres should not deflate and blow out as they are now, yes tyres will puncture in races but not to the level they have been so far this season.

I had a tour of Silverstone a few weeks back, and funnily enough one of the things they spoke about was the kerbs. Not how high or hard they were, but how much they had been lowered, altered and reduced in order to accommodate motorbike racing when they adopted the new layout.

Kerbs were dropped from 3" to 1", and the angle of the kerb was reversed, so the slope goes up with the driver rather than hitting a vertical surface - offering a little more protection to their knees as they scrape over the kerbs. Better for bikers, but it also makes it less of a penalty for cars who now seem to aim to use the full width of the kerb as if it was part of the intended racing line - and ultimately the cars that push their cars even wider running the risk of rubbing against the outside corner of the kerbs.

But those changes were made a few years ago, and F1 has already run that layout, as have numerous other formulas of cars.

When the 3rd blowout happened in the race I really was expecting to see it get red flagged and not restarted on safety grounds. The safety car allowed the track to be cleared of debris, but the main concern would still have been the tyres themselves, and when you have multiple pit crews radioing messages to drivers stating examined tyres show signs of damage it really is a significant risk to continue running.

Pirelli were quite adamant under questioning that they needed to go away and analyse the tyres before they could say exactly what the cause was, but they really do need to come up with an answer that everyone can trust. As mentioned above, if it can happen to the hard tyre it doesn't inspire confidence in the softer compounds which you would expect to deteriorate faster.

Will teams withdraw from Germany? At first I doubt it, but if someone has any kind of tyre issues in any of the practice or quali sessions, it has to become a major safety issue. Unlike USA where a few cars could run because there was another tyre manufacturer, we currently only have Pirelli - if their tyre is deemed unsafe then no race can happen.

Latest from BBC Sport. 

Pirelli will change how it makes its tyres ahead of this weekend's German Grand Prix to try to avoid the catastrophic failures from Silverstone.

The rear tyres' internal belt will be made of Kevlar at the Nurburgring this weekend rather than the usual steel.

Then for the Hungarian Grand Prix at the end of July, Pirelli will revert to its 2012 construction, which is different to that used this year.

The aim is to make the tyres more resistant to cuts and punctures.

More to follow.