Rosberg blow-out not caused by tyre problem – Pirelli

2015 Belgian Grand Prix

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Pirelli say Nico Rosberg’s tyre blow-out yesterday was not caused by a fault with the tyre.

Having investigated Rosberg’s soft compound right-rear tyre, which exploded at over 300kph during second practice yesterday, and other drivers’ rubber, Pirelli are convinced the fault does not lie with their product.

“There are no signs of structural integrity issue of the tyre, neither on other tyres used by Mercedes nor on tyres used on other vehicles,” said Pirelli in a statement.

Rosberg’s rearward facing onboard camera showed damage was visible on the inside shoulder of his right-rear tyre well before it failed. Pirelli said this was “consistent with an external cut into the tyre structure”.

“Quality data check on other tyres has shown no anomalies,” they added.

Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery said: “We have conducted a thorough investigation to find out exactly what happened with Nico’s tyre. This investigation now excludes any structural integrity issues.”

“Based on the information and data available an external source of damage is the conclusion made.”

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    Keith Collantine
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    9 comments on “Rosberg blow-out not caused by tyre problem – Pirelli”

    1. So based on images showing the tyre falling apart before it explodes they conclude that there was nothing wrong with the tyre?

      1. @rethla

        Video footage shows a tyre problem on Rosberg’s car which is consistent with an external cut into the tyre structure.

      2. ColdFly F1 (@)
        22nd August 2015, 11:17

        @rethla, the article gives a lot more reasoning! Suggest you read it again.

    2. Pirelli says it s all down to the new turbo engine

    3. Only Rosberg got bad set of tyres. Just like Canada.

    4. Curious that they offered no reason why the tyre didn’t deflate as from a normal puncture. The footage clearly shows the tyre’s thread/fabric unspooling on the inner shoulder – something which Paddy Lowe said he’d never seen in all his years in F1. Maybe it was caused by a foreign object, but it would be good to get an explanation as to why the tyre disintegrated in that particular manner.

    5. I don’t know if this site accepts links but this is what actually cut the tyre:

      http://www.omnicorse.it/magazine/63241/anteprima-fi-gp-belgio-e-stata-una-pinna-mercedes-a-bucare-la-gomma-pirelli

      the fin placed in front of the rear tyres under the immense load (3.5 Gs vertilcally) of the eau rouge/radillon complex just punctured the tyres that subsequently blew a couple of miles away.
      Rosberg is probably running a softer setup than Hamilton and that helped te process as well.

      1. If there is a 3.5G downward force on the chassis this would surely move the fin shown away from the tyre, since it is located below the mid-point of the tyre height as shown in the images.

        The only way this could touch the tyre is if the wheel moved forwards relative to the chassis, which could only be caused by acceleration, which I doubt could generate enough force to reduce that gap in a direction which surely has much greater rigidity.

        1. I get what you’re saying but in the last part of Radillon when they suddently reach the top of the hill the vertical acceleration become negative, hence the fin moves closer to the tyre pheraps touching it, and if you look at the video that’s exactly the place where the problem begins.

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