Mario Isola, Pirelli F1 tyre chief stated that there will be an investigation regarding what had caused the three separate incidents of tyre failures that occurred during the final stages of the 2020 British Grand Prix.
Lewis Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas and Carlos Sainz suffered from front-left tyre failure which put up the question as to why this incident occurred in the same sequence. All the three drivers had their Front-left tyre get a puncture during the final stages of the Grand Prix.
Valtteri Bottas was the first to get a puncture on lap 50 of 52 which resulted in him losing points. He could have got a podium finish if only he had no issues with his tyre on lap 50 with only three more laps to finish the race.
Sainz was to get fourth place but unfortunately his tyre also failed which resulted in him heading into Maggots and Becketts complex which forced him to pit.
At this juncture, Hamilton was told to manage his tyres since his team mate Bottas witnessed a tyre failure but Hamilton too had the same fate with only a lap to go. He drove with only three tyres towards the finish line that gave him an epic finish which led him to acquire the title of "7 time British Grand Prix Champion"
Also See: Hamilton Wins British Grand Prix On Three Wheels
Isola stated that it is too early to conclude what caused the tyre failure. However it was mentioned that it could have been the debris from Kimi Raikkonen's front wing which could have have caused the tyre puncture.
Isola stated that," “It can be debris, because we had the pieces of the front wing of Kimi that were on track, but also some other debris. So that’s why we want to investigate not only the tyres with a failure, but all the tyres used in the last few laps of the race, to understand if we find any other cut or any other possible indication on what happened."
He further added that, “We don’t want to exclude anything, we want to analyse everything 360 degrees and avoid excluding any possibility because it’s a big mistake when you make these kinds of investigations. We have to consider all the possibilities. What we can do is to analyse the tyres from the race to understand if there is anything in the construction that was subject to excessive stress, or whatever, but this is one of the investigations.”
It was also mentioned by Isola that “We have the possibility to do some analysis in our laboratory here on track. It is clear that we don’t have a lot of time to carry on with the investigation, because we have another race in less than one week."
Pirelli stated that there is no need for them to rethink about the choice of tyre compounds since they have been tested in extreme conditions and is the best choice for the Formula 1 race.
