Tyres have been the major talking point behind the scenes at Spa today in the light of front blistering suffered by several of the teams who ran in Q3 and thus start in the top 10.
The teams concerned – including Red Bull – have tried to persuade the FIA that those tyres are damaged and thus they should be allowed to replace the fronts for the start of the race.
The FIA’s response appears to have changed over the course of the morning, with some team sources suggesting that permission has been granted to three teams and others now suggesting that it won’t happen after all. Three teams I spoke to in the last 30 minutes had different versions of the story; and one knew nothing at all about it.
An RBR source said that Adrian Newey and Christian Horner are in with the FIA right now.
If they are granted permission, in theory teams will not be given fresh tyres, so they will have to take two front tyres from one of their other sets, which in effect means they will have only two complete sets of softs for the race. Teams had expected to use three softs and one medium should the race stay dry, so then it becomes a problem…
The FIA has also just said that Pirelli has released 17 new front tyres, just to confuse the matter.
One team is said in such extreme trouble with front blistering that they may have to contemplate a set-up change, which would mean dropping out of parc ferme and starting from the pitlane. Extreme cambers have contributed to the pace of certain cars through Sector 2.
Adam Cooper F1 
The whole appeal process is a mockery, the rules are in place for a reason and the same for everyone. Setup dictates tyre wear, maybe the teams that want to change should have setup the car accordingly.
If they want to change tyres then they should start from the back, period!
Why should a team get the advantage of running an aggresive setup and then get a pardon because it has backfired on them?
If this gets given the go ahead then something is seriously wrong with the “sport”
Live by the sword die by the sword!
Really, if so this is disgraceful, the rules are the rules, you start on the tyres you qualified on, if they are not in prime condition then its the teams fault for not conserving them!
Yet again it seems redbull are trying to come up with an excuse to change something because they are worried that they no longer have the fastest car, how sad…
They know that if they are in top 10 they have to start on those tyres, you can’t release them from that rule without compromising others further down the grid. If they get new tyres now this will start a whole new strategy of deliberately destroying tyres in Q3.
Well if it’s camber related, the team in the most trouble has to be RBR. The negative camber they run is phenomenal. I sure hope they don’t have to start from pit lane. Especially Webber. He did say he took a fair bit out of his tyres early in Q3 though. Fingers crossed.
Apparently La Sexta is reporting that they’re going to allow Red bull and McLaren to change their front tires. If that’s true, then what a joke!!
I’m intrigued how they were so badly damaged from 15mins of running, esp on a colder, wettish track?
Unless of course I missed a story, also entirely possible!