FIA faces F1 driver fury at Qatar Grand Prix over changes amid safety concerns at track
At the Qatar Grand Prix, the FIA is facing driver rage over changes made due to track safety concerns.
The Pirelli analysis of the tires used in practice on Friday revealed concerning signs of unexpected wear, which the FIA believes were brought on by the Losail Circuit’s “pyramid” kerbs.
Following a last-minute track change for the Qatar Grand Prix due to safety concerns, the FIA has acknowledged that the anger of Formula 1 drivers is “understandable.”.
After researching the tires used in the Friday practice session, Pirelli identified a problem.
After carefully examining those used compounds, they started to worry about the tyres’ structural integrity if they were to be used for more than 20 laps.
The FIA decided to paint the track to narrow turns 12 and 13 by approximately 80 cm in order to prevent drivers from repeatedly driving over the particularly abrasive parts of those ‘pyramid’ kerbs in that section of the track.
This was done after it was determined that the ‘pyramid’ kerbs were the likely cause.
Additionally, a 10-minute practice session was held before the Sprint Shootout on Saturday so the drivers could complete a few laps and get accustomed to the new, tighter corners.
But that did not placate the drivers, many of whom were enraged to learn about the changes after the FIA made them known to the public.
Even though there was a safety concern, many drivers believed they should have been consulted before any potential changes.
Additionally, Nikolas Tombazis, the FIA’s director for single-seaters, has acknowledged that he feels some pity for the drivers.
Before that brief practice, he told Sky Sports, “It is understandable.
Safety is unquestionably our top priority, and the people who operate the vehicles want to make sure everyone is safe.
We did think about changing the kerbs, but given the time we had from very late last night to today, it would not have been possible.
There were quite a few kerbs; there weren’t just one or two of them.
Because the concrete was so hard, filing them off would not have been possible.
“So, based on that, the next thing we got was to actually get the cars to stay a bit further away from the kerbs, which is what we’ve done by changing the white line.
“.
Tombazis took care to exonerate the circuit itself, stating: “To be clear, the kerb used is of an FIA specification.
We haven’t heard any complaints about the track because they followed all the rules and did a good job putting everything together.
These interactions between tyres and kerbs can be extremely complex and depend on a lot of relatively minute details, which obviously shows that more research is required to further improve the situation from both a tyre and kerb point of view.
“.
