Verstappen unhappy with Pirelli’s “vague” explanation for F1 tyre failures

Max Verstappen says he is not happy with what he has described as a “vague” explanation from Formula 1 tyre supplier Pirelli regarding a pair of blowouts at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
The Red Bull Racing RB16B of race retiree Max Verstappen (NLD) Red Bull Racing is recovered back to the pits on the back of a truck.
The Red Bull Racing RB16B of race retiree Max Verstappen (NLD) Red Bull Racing is recovered…
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The Red Bull driver lost the chance to win in Baku when he crashed out of the lead with five laps to go after suffering a dramati📖c left-rear tyre failure along the start finish straight, while A♏ston Martin’s Lance Stroll suffered a similar blowout.

A Pirelli investigation found that teams were not to 𓆏blame for the failures, while it also concluded the issues were not debris-related.

“For me it was just a bit vague, what came out,” Verstap♛pen said.

“The only thing I can say is from our side📖 the team did everything like they should have done, I mean they folloꦿwed all the guidelines with tyre pressures and stuff, so there was nothing to be found there.

“For sure we’ll go up on pressures here for this weekend. I’m 100% sure we will. Probably it has something 💞to do with that, what happened in Baku, but😼 it would also be nice to just know if it was tyre pressure related.

“Just speak out - I think that wouldꦉ be I think a bit easier to understand than I think the explanation we got so far, because the team didn’t do anything wrong.”

The FIA has increased tyre﷽ pressures and temperature checks for this weekend’s French Grand Prix, a response which has prompted some suggestions that teams could have been using clever tricks to play with pr💃essures.

But Verstappen insisted Red Bull did not do anything untoward with its tyre parameters acr💮oss the 🅺weekend in Baku.

“We gave them our tyre pressures and they were within the limits they set,” Verstappen stressed. “If those limits are not correc♌t there is nothing we can do about it.

“We just follow what’s possible within the rules. If that means we have to go up on pressures we will, everyone will go up on pressures, but they say they didn’t have the correct measurements but we gave it to them after the race and it was shown we 𒆙didn’t do anything wrong there.

“Also, Aston Martin didn’t do anything wrong, so they cannot put the blame on us, and I think they have 🗹to look at themselves.

“We are here happ♔y to help, of course, with everything, and they already went up on pressure from Friday to Saturday, so that means something, but maybe it wasn’t enough. We’ll go up on pressures he༺re for sure and hopefully that’s enough.”

🃏🏅Verstappen said he felt “lucky” to avoid a potentially bigger impact with the barriers had he speared off to the right instead of the left along the main straight.

“I was actually quite lucky to hit the wall on the right hand side instead of the left, as I think if id’ have gone left it would have been a really bi🌃g impact,” he explained.

“Of coജurse I was really upset and disappointed to not win that race but on the other hand I was quite lucky in that inciden♔t.

“It happens, 🐓it’s racing, of course things can happen but these kinds of things you don’t want to happen.”

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