Webber backs Vettel in Pirelli row: “Seb is right”
Webber backs Vettel in Pirelli row: “Seb is right”
Many, our very own Judge and the Chief Editor, to name two, have criticized Sebastian Vettel for his uncensored attack on tyre supplier Pirelli after the Belgian GP, but support is now coming from the last person one would have expected – his former arch nemesis Mark Webber.
“Seb is one hundred percent right,” the Australian told Auto Motor & Sport. “You get slower, okay, but as a driver you must be able to rely on the fact that the tyre stays intact.”
Webber offers a theory that there is a fundamental flaw in Pirelli’s construction. “I don’t buy the explanation that the blow-ups of Nico Rosberg and Seb have anything to do with the compound,” he explained and offered the own theory that the problem is the diversity of tracks the tyres have to work on. “It would mean you could only run five laps in Spa on a Monaco tyre. For me the culprit is the construction.”
Webber explains that it is “blind luck” that no driver had to suffer serious consequences from Pirelli’s approach since they entered F1 and accuses Paul Hembery as Pirelli’s mouthpiece of abusing successfully executed risky strategies as PR gold for the company.
“Imagine Seb would have made those last twelve kilometres. Pirelli would have come out, saying ‘look how fantastic our tyres are’.”
Webber expressed satisfaction with FIA’s attempts to make motorsport safer, but demands a firmer approach to the crucial matter of Pirelli’s products. “You can’t close your eyes for a vital part like tyres,” Webber continued, but admits he is aware of the inherent dangers of being a racing driver.
“We drivers can make mistakes, we have to live with that [risk]. But if you’re reduced to being a passenger, for a reason you can’t influence, that’s where it stops being funny.”
Lotus take-over imminent?
For a short while it looked as if Force India had become the preferred target for take-over and Renault’s return as a works effort, but if latest reports from Autosport.com are to be believed, the pendulum has swung to Lotus’ favor.
According to Autosport, Renault will become a majority stakeholder in Lotus next week, but an official confirmation has so far been as elusive as Pastor Maldonado’s talent. According to Autosport, the take-over will cost Renault eighty-nine million Euro for 65% shares in the team. Gerard Lopez is expected to keep 25% of the shares with the remaining ten percent reserved for Alain Prost, who would assume a management role, comparable to that of Darth Lauda at Mercedes.
Talk is that Renault will come in for the 2016 season with a budget that puts them in the same leagues as Ferrari and Red Bull.
Re Webber’s comments…
Here’s an interesting article written by Somers. Please read with an open mind…
http://somersf1.blogspot.fi/2015/08/the-blame-game.html?m=1
I don’t agree… courtois is our goalkeeper. And he gets praised a lot 😂
Here is a slowmo of the slowmo referred to in the above article, that I made a few days ago.
https://vid.me/e/lOiy
Note the tyre corner distortion as it passes over the small kerb when it crosses the white line and also that as the tyre is compressed the back sidewall inverts in profile. Obviously the bounce referred to in the article is visible, but also if you look at the tyre and brake air scoop you can see the slow resonance in the whole suspension.
To me it appears that Ferrari have a very hard spring rate and are relying on the tyre sidewall for suspension. The tyre ‘spring rate’ and suspension appear to have a common resonance frequency causing the tyre sidewall to form a standing wave ripple as it regains traction.
Interestingly the same artefact was visible on Hamiltons left rear at the hairpin in Canada, but there were no kerbs around to further damage the tyre.
i think it all comes down to FIA in the end, FIA is their client and Pirelli build the rubber based on their client’s specs and needs. Now people are talking about F1 so Bernie must be laughing all the way to the bank now
I think it would be great to see Renault back as a constructor with a works team. They may even inject some much needed colour into what is a very dull looking set of F1 cars when parked on the grid.
#yellowperil
If that’s right over the force india deal then I fear for the solvency of Lotus. After the very public wrist slap at Spa over the Tyre bill and the Driver seat cockup things don’t appear well. My spider sense was tingling when after such a bad weekend Lotus pulled a rabbit out of the hat with a third place,kind of reminds me of the 70th birthday gift of a win for Sir Franks team in Spain or when after all the bad press over Mercs dominance,my beloved red team pull a surprise win😇..now where is my tin foil? I really hope that the force india isn’t the path, no offence to the people at Silverstone but Lotus appear to need a buyer sooner as VJ might have had his money belt clipped but I am sure he has more clout than Genii. It’s a sad lineup at the moment with FI,Lotus,torro rosso and maybe Manor all looking for a buyer..that’s 8 car that have funding problems so is there any wonder the top teams are running away at the front
Toro Rosso has no funding problems, Mateschitz merely wants to get rid of it as rule changes since the takeover of Minardi have diminished STR’s use as a de-facto second Red Bull team.
I think the FI talks were just to get the price down on Lotus. Lets face it if Lotus think that Renault might buy a competitor they can’t ask a very high price as they need the money desperately.
What I can’t understand is why Renault have not used any in season tokens. OK so they have been able to change/redesign some components due to reliability but they will be forcing their teams to suffer penalties for additional engines. Surely, on past performance, dyno tests are not very representative of track running. So come on Renault get some tokens spent and give them a test on track.
They’ve spent four token on an engine revision that’s coming in Sochi