Adam Cooper F1

Lewis Hamilton bounced back from a poor morning practice session in Germany to secure his second straight pole.

Hamilton was fastest in FP1 on Friday but the car got progressively less to his liking after he made changes for FP2 and again for FP3. He was even concerned that he wouldn’t make the top 10, but further changes for qualifying paid off, and he pipped Sebastian Vettel.

“I tell you, it’s really overwhelming,” said Hamilton. “I’ve been struggling since the first run in P1, which was pretty good, P2, P3 were just disasters and it got even worse this morning. We were miles off. I was a good eight-tenths of a second off. I wasn’t comfortable with the car at all.

“And we went back into the truck and we just worked hard, tried to analyse everything and made lots and lots of changes. I just hoped that it would work and fortunately the car was beneath me and I was able to put in the times we did. I’m grateful for the work the guys did with me and, again, this is just down to all the hard work the team has been putting in.”

Hamilton admitted he was surprised that team mate Nico Rosberg missed out on Q3 after a bad call by the team.

“Well, it was obviously a big surprise for all of us. Nico’s been quick all weekend and I anticipated that he would most likely out-qualify me today and be up there where we are right now. Obviously he was only two tenths off the pace compared to my lap and obviously the track did ramp up and that was a real surprise and that caught us out a bit.”

Rush has received a positive response. Photo: AC

Ron Howard came through what he described as his ‘toughest test’ since he completed Rush when F1 insiders gave him an ovation after a screening of the film at the German GP.

Niki Lauda, who had already seen the film that tells his story, led the applause for a visibly relieved Howard – who admitted to the audience in his introduction that he was nervous.

While the film has been well received by members of the motor sporting media, Thursday night was the first time that it had been viewed a large group of leading lights from the F1 paddock, led by Bernie Ecclestone.

Drivers Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg and Felipe Massa were joined by senior team members including Ross Brawn, Adrian Newey, Christian Horner, Paddy Lowe, Toto Wolff and Sam Michael.

“I went home and immediately phoned my wife Cheryl,” Howard told this blog. “She understood when I compared it to the screening of Apollo 13 that we did at NASA for the astronauts and mission controllers. It was that kind of feeling last night, having everyone vouch for it, sanction it, and compliment us on it.

“It was, ‘Here’s the elite, they’re right in it, what are they going to think?’ I spoke to the drivers, and they were very complimentary, which made me feel great. Some of the engineering guys are so excited by what we’ve achieved. I don’t know where that comes from – perhaps they’ve been disappointed by other films, or perhaps they assumed it was too complicated for us to ever get it.”

Howard was particularly pleased to get an unconditional thumbs-up from Ecclestone.

“I said to Bernie, ‘Thanks for taking the time to see the movie,’ and he said, ‘Thanks for making it. It really took me back.’ He wasn’t joking, he was kind of emotional, and I think he was surprised.

“Surprised is the word that I have to use to define almost every screening. People are coming out of this having got somehow more than they expected, which is gratifying.”

Rush will be released in September.

Fernando Alonso says he trusts Pirelli to solve the problems that blighted the British GP.

The Spaniard, who had a close-up view of the left rear of Sergio Perez exploding, says safety is the priority.

“It was a dangerous situation, but I didn’t think anything special about it at the time,” he said of the Perez incident. “I committed to overtake Sergio on the right, which was lucky, because if I’d gone to the left maybe the tyre debris would have hit my helmet. Bits of steel travelling at 300 kilometres per hour would be like a bullet or a knife.

“Now, they have made some changes and we trust Pirelli to solve the problem as they know what they are doing. Let’s wait and see and hopefully we won’t have these problems again as they are not good for the sport. We need to wait and see how it will affect our performance. It’s the third or fourth change they’ve made this season, some have hurt us, some were good for us and that is another question mark for this weekend.

“However, they have only changed the rears, and usually they are less problematic in terms of the warm-up that we can suffer from with the fronts. But today, performance is the second priority. What we need to have is a tyre with which you can finish the race and get home at night.”

Regarding the general mood after a low-key performance at Silverstone, he said: “Mixed feelings. Obviously we said we were happy with closing the points gap to Vettel, but not happy with our performance. It’s something we need to investigate here, to see if Silverstone was a one-off, because we didn’t have the right balance on the car or if it’s because everyone else made more progress and we made a step backwards. Hopefully, this weekend we can return to the form we showed earlier.

“We went very deep in the analysis of Silverstone, as we were not competitive and we did see some issues with the car in terms of its aerodynamic characteristics and also the set-up. So maybe we can do things better here.

“In any case, this race and the next one in Hungary will be dominated by the tyres and which cars they suit best. This means we must learn to interpret the new tyres as quickly as possible and get them to work for us and we will be putting a lot of effort into this.”

F1 drivers have been supportive of the action taken by Pirelli in the wake of the Silverstone problems.

While privately some may have concerns about changes to the competitive status quo, all agreed that the safety issue was paramount.

“I think first of all that it’s good that within not even a week’s time, how we were able to get a different tyre for this race which hopefully is safer for all of us,” said Sebastian Vettel. “Obviously the last race was not what we want and not satisfactory so I think it’s good that we have a new tyre here. How much better and how different it will be is difficult to judge at this stage but I’m confident that it’s a step forward.”

“I think it’s definitely important to change something for safety, no longer for the performance,” said Sergio Perez, one of the ‘victims’ of a blowout last weekend. “I think it’s very important that we as drivers feel safe, something that could really happen, a big accident in the last race weekend, so I think that definitely it’s a good thing that Pirelli is reacting to make a change.”

“I think it is for safety now and there must be some action and there is some action,” Nico Hulkenberg. “There are changes and I think generally this track here is not as high speed, not as many high speed corners so the tyres don’t get as hard a time as they did at Silverstone. So I’m confident that this will be safe now.”

“Well, I trust the FIA is going to make the right calls,” said Nico Rosberg. “As they are, they’re working on it flat out together with Pirelli, so I’m sure there’s going to be progress and it shouldn’t be a concern this weekend.”

Schuberth helmets raced by Michael Schumacher, Fernando Alonso, Felipe Massa, Nico Rosberg, Jules Bianchi and Nico Hulkenberg are up for grabs in a charity auction organised by the German manufacturer.

The auction is in aid of victims of the flood in Magdeburg, where Schuberth is based. Some 20,000 residents had to be evacuated on June 9 when the River Elbe flood wave hit the town.

“Thousands of personnel from the fire service, the relief agency THW and the German army as well as great numbers of volunteers fought against the floods,” says Schuberth CEO Marcel Lejeune. “For the first time in company history we were forced to stop work. Many of our employees took a volunteer position at the dams themselves to lend a hand or tried to save their own possessions. We soon realised that we did not just want to thank people for what they had done, but also give something to those who had suffered losses from the disaster.”

Magdeburg’s Lord Mayor Lutz Trümper said: “This is a brilliant idea of Schuberth’s. I would like to thank Schuberth and of course also the drivers themselves for their willingness to help the people in our town, who are suffering hardship as a result of this ‘flood of the century’. It is great to see such popular international sports stars becoming involved. Their example will motivate many other people all over Germany to do something themselves to help put life in our town and in all other affected areas in Germany back on track.”

Schumacher’s helmet was used in 2012, and the others are all from this season.

The auction can be found at: www.schuberth.com/charity

Ross Brawn insists that Mercedes ran above Pirelli’s minimum pressures at Silverstone – which means that one of the key reasons for the blowouts cited by the tyre company cannot account for the failure suffered by Lewis Hamilton.

Mercedes is however one of the teams which has been routinely running tyres on the ‘wrong’ side, one of the other factors cited by Pirelli.

Speaking before last night’s statement emerged, Brawn said it would be essential that the FIA become involved in monitoring pressures should they be deemed to be a contributing factor, something that Pirelli has now requested.

“I think pressure wise people were running within the recommended range of Pirelli, and it was also the most competitive range of the tyre,” Brawn told this writer.

“I think where you have a problem is when a tyre clearly performs at a pressure which is outside of their recommended range. If we get into a scenario where the solution is to run pressures which are outside the best performance of the tyre, then there’s got to be a really robust system to make sure people don’t abuse it.

“The good thing so far is that the pressures Pirelli want you to run are where the tyre works best anyway, so no one’s had any incentive to stray. I don’t think anyone was out there running excessively low pressures – certainly we weren’t.

“I think if Pirelli determine that running a higher minimum pressure is the answer, the FIA have got to step in and say right we’re going to police that or control that. If they don’t there will be accusations and potential abuse of the pressures, because it will mean performance.”

Regarding Silverstone, he said: “We had a recommendation [during the race] to keep the tyre pressures higher, which we did. So Nico and Lewis in the latter part of the race ran at the top end of the range that was recommended.

“Of course there was a slight worry after the safety car about keeping the pressures up. There was lots of encouragement to Nico and Lewis to keep the pressures as high as they could, do we didn’t restart behind the safety car with low pressures.”

Pirelli has tonight issued the following statement on what happened at Silverstone – and what the company plans to do next. See previous story for a summary.

After exhaustive analysis of the tyres used at Silverstone, Pirelli has concluded that the causes of the failures were principally down to a combination of the following factors:

 1) Rear tyres that were mounted the wrong way round: in other words, the right hand tyre being placed where the left hand one should be and vice versa, on the cars that suffered failures. The tyres supplied this year have an asymmetric structure, which means that they are not designed to be interchangeable. The sidewalls are designed in such a way to deal with specific loads on the internal and external sides of the tyre. So swapping the tyres round has an effect on how they work in certain conditions. In particular, the external part is designed to cope with the very high loads that are generated while cornering at a circuit as demanding as Silverstone, with its rapid left-hand bends and some kerbs that are particularly aggressive.

2) The use of tyre pressures that were excessively low or in any case lower than those indicated by Pirelli. Under-inflating the tyres means that the tyre is subjected to more stressful working conditions.

3) The use of extreme camber angles.

4) Kerbing that was particularly aggressive on fast corners, such as that on turn four at Silverstone, which was the scene of most of the failures. Consequently it was the left-rear tyres that were affected.

The only problems that had come to light before Silverstone were to do with delamination, which was a completely different phenomenon. To stop these delaminations Pirelli found a solution by suggesting that the teams use the tyres that were tried out in Canada from Silverstone onwards. When this proposal was not accepted, Pirelli found another solution through laboratory testing, with a different bonding process to attach the tread to the carcass. So the problem of delamination has nothing at all to do with what was seen in Great Britain.

 Following the conclusions of this analysis, Pirelli would like to underline that:

1) Mounting the tyres the wrong way round is a practice that was nonetheless underestimated by everybody: above all Pirelli, which did not forbid this.

2) In the same way, under-inflation of the tyres and extreme camber settings, over which Pirelli has no control, are choices that can be dangerous under certain circumstances. Because of this, Pirelli has asked the FIA for these parameters will be a topic of accurate and future examinations. Pirelli has also asked for compliance with these rules to be checked by a dedicated delegate.

3) Pirelli would also like to underline that the 2013 tyre range does not compromise driver safety in any way if used in the correct manner, and that it meets all the safety standards requested by the FIA.

 The logical conclusion is that it is essential for tyres with the performance and technical sophistication of the 2013 range to be regulated and carefully controlled by Pirelli itself. In order to ensure the optimal functioning of the tyres, the Italian firm would need real-time data from the teams regarding fundamental parameters such as pressure, temperature and camber angles. While waiting for new regulations that would permit Pirelli access to this data, vital for the development and management of these state-of-the-art tyres, the following measures are proposed for the forthcoming grands prix, in agreement with the FIA, FOM, the teams and the drivers:

1) The use of the evolution of the current tyre that was tested in Canada (and proved to be completely reliable) for the German Grand Prix this weekend. This represents the best match for the technical characteristics of the Nurburgring circuit. In particular, the rear tyres that will be used at the German Grand Prix, which takes place on July 7, have a Kevlar construction that replaces the current steel structure and the re-introduction of the 2012 belt, to ensure maximum stability and roadholding. Given that these tyres are asymmetric as well, it will be strictly forbidden to swap them round. The front tyres, by contrast, will remain unaltered.

2) From the Hungarian Grand Prix onwards, the introduction of a new range of tyres. The new tyres will have a symmetrical structure, designed to guarantee maximum safety even without access to tyre data – which however is essential for the optimal function of the more sophisticated 2013 tyres. The tyres that will be used for the Hungarian Grand Prix onwards will combine the characteristics of the 2012 tyres with the performance of the 2013 compounds. Essentially, the new tyres will have a structure, construction and belt identical to that of 2012, which ensured maximum performance and safety. The compounds will be the same as those used throughout 2013, which guaranteed faster lap times and a wider working range. This new specification, as agreed with the FIA, will be tested on-track together with the teams and their 2013 cars at Silverstone from 17-19 July in a session with the race drivers during the young driver test. These tests will contribute to the definitive development of the new range of tyres, giving teams the opportunity to carry out the appropriate set-up work on their cars.

Pirelli has blamed the teams for triggering the Silverstone tyre debacle – a move that might cause further tension between the Italian company and its customers.

Pirelli has also confirmed that it will use the Canada development rear tyres in Germany this weekend, with Kevlar belts – and says that a new range will be introduced in Hungary following the Silverstone test later this month, in effect combining the 2012 structures and 2013 compounds.

Meanwhile its investigations has shown that left-to-right rear tyre swapping, as explained here some weeks ago, was one of the factors at Silverstone. Pirelli had previously not been concerned about teams using that tactic.

It also says that teams were running excessively low pressures and extreme cambers, and adds that the Silverstone kerbs were another factor. It says that its tyres are perfectly safe if operated correctly, noting: “In line with what the company always claimed the range of tyres, 2013, if used correctly, does not jeopardize the safety of drivers, and has all the safety features required by the FIA.”

Pirelli wants the FIA to regulate pressures and cambers in the future.

For the German GP only asymmetrical tyres will still be used and Pirelli says teams will not be allowed to swap side-to-side. From Hungary onwards it won’t be an issue as they will be symmetrical.

Intriguingly Pirelli also says that the Silverstone failures were not related to delaminations earlier in the year, when tyres stayed inflated after losing treads.

Paul Hembery said: “What happened at Silverstone was completely unexpected and it was the first time that anything like this has ever occurred in more than a century of Pirelli in motorsport. These incidents, which have upset us greatly, have stressed the urgency of the changes that we already suggested – which will be introduced during for free practice in Germany on Friday.

“We would like to acknowledge the willingness of the FIA, FOM teams, and drivers to act quickly to find an immediate solution to the problem. In particular, the adoption of winter tests, arranged with the FIA, that are more suitable for tyre development and the possibility of carrying out in-season testing will contribute to the realisation of tyres with increasingly improved standards of safety and performance.

“I’d like to re-emphasise the fact that the 2013 range of tyres, used in the correct way, is completely safe. What happened at Silverstone though has led us to ask for full access to real time tyre data to ensure the correct usage and development of tyres that have the sophistication we were asked to provide and extremely high performance that has lowered lap times by more than two seconds on average. While we wait for a change in the rules, we will introduce tyres that are easier to manage.”

Lotus boss Eric Boullier says that the team apologised to Kimi Raikkonen for a bad strategy call at Silverstone – and insists that the incident won’t harm the Enstone outfit’s chances of retaining the Finn for 2014.

Kimi dropped to fifth in the sprint to the flag following the final safety car after he didn’t pit for new tyres, and could not defend against those on fresher rubber.

“Our strategy was great until the last safety car,” said Boullier. “We should have called Kimi in to save at least one position and make the podium. Unfortunately, we made the wrong call for which we apologised to Kimi and to the team. This sometimes happens and it isn’t easy to manage when you have so many safety car periods. In Germany we’re confident we will be competitive and aiming to make amends.

“We’re all grown -ups and we’re all pretty frank with each other. It was pretty obvious with hindsight that we made the wrong call. No team can say that they make the correct call on every occasion; whether in race strategy, car design philosophy or any other aspect of the sport.

“Kimi was pretty frustrated when he got out of the car which is understandable – we wouldn’t want a driver who wasn’t frustrated after what happened – but there’s no point sitting in the corner sulking; we’re focused on getting a good result in Germany.”

Regarding Raikkonen’s future plans he said: “Kimi’s an intelligent guy and he won’t let a single pit stop call define a decision like where to drive for 2014.  One of his psychological strengths is that he clearly lets you know when he’s upset about something, then he refocuses and gets on with the next challenge very quickly. He seems to like being with Lotus F1 Team and we’re doing everything we can to show him this is the place to be for next season and beyond.”