Breaking news
Formula 1
McLaren had no warning of Sainz's tyre failure
McLaren Formula 1 boss Andreas Seidl says that the Woking team had no warning of the "sudden death" of Carlos Sainz's left front tyre in the closing laps of the British GP.
Adam Cooper
Published: Aug 3, 2020, 1:28 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
The Spaniard was running a strong fifth and had just moved up to fourth after Valtteri Bottas suffered a tyre failure when he suffered a similar issue on the penultimate lap.
He got the car back to the pits, but finished out of the points in 13th place. A fifth-place finish for teammate Lando Norris gave the team some compensation.
Seidl insisted that up to that point of the failure there had no concerns about tyre life during the race.
"No, not really," he said when asked if there was any warning. "Carlos was reporting some vibrations early on in the race, in his stint on the hard tyres, but there was nothing extraordinary.
"It was a sudden death of the tyre, and obviously very disappointing at the moment for the entire team and especially for Carlos.
"But at the same time, that's part of racing, that happens in racing. It's important to look at the positive stuff from today, learn from what was not ideal, and do it again next week.
"We didn't have any signs of a tyre failure coming. We knew we had to manage the tyres for this long stint on the hards, but there were no concerns from our side or from Pirelli's side that we could complete the stint, and we are seeing with several cars there were issues in the end.
"But I think it's also important now to not jump to conclusions too early."
Read Also:
- Pirelli launches “360 degrees” investigation after failures
- Hamilton convinced debris caused last-lap tyre failure
Seidl says the team is willing to adapt to any Pirelli's requirements for next weekend's 70th Anniversary GP, when a softer range of tyres will be used.
"It's important to wait for the thorough analysis of Pirelli, together with the teams, of what was actually causing these tyre failures. In theory it could be also down to some debris.
"So we need to wait for that, and then I'm sure Pirelli will make the right conclusions taking into account also the expected ambient conditions for next weekend, where it looks we'll get some really high ambient temperatures again.
"And then I'm sure they will make the right conclusions in terms of first of all the tyre selection, so the question is does that need to be reviewed? Or we might get some restrictions in terms of how we use the tyres.
"We need to wait for the analysis, and then I'm sure we will make the right decisions with Pirelli in terms of safety. Safety always has the highest priority, but again at the moment we can't make any judgement or conclusion."
Seidl praised Sainz for his charging performance from seventh on the grid.
"I feel very sorry for Carlos because he showed us a very strong drive today," he said. "He felt comfortable with the car all weekend, he did some great manoeuvres on track, straight after the restart.
"Everything worked to plan, the pitstop worked to plan, so in the end everything was under control to finish in a strong P4, or even in P5, if you would figure in the failure of Bottas in the end.
"But that's part of racing, sometimes it goes like that and in the end it's important to make a reset tomorrow morning, see what we can learn from this weekend, take the positives as a motivation and try again next weekend.
"I think the strategy team today did a great job of making the right calls on the safety car, pitstops today was very good outcome for us, I think it we did the fourth quickest pitstop also today in the race for our crew, which was great to see, also the first stop of Lando was a quick one but we had to hold then the car because of traffic.
"So a lot of encouraging signs, at the same time we always want to do better, so let's see what we can find during the week and try again."
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Bottas says he "can't afford" point-less races like British GP
Next article Magnussen critical of Albon's "poorly judged" passing attempt
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Adam Cooper
RB: Tsunoda “mentally on a different level” in 2024
Formula 1
Formula 1
Japanese GP
RB: Tsunoda “mentally on a different level” in 2024
Andretti planning F2 and F3 entries to promote US talent to F1 team
Formula 1
Formula 1
Andretti planning F2 and F3 entries to promote US talent to F1 team
Andretti F1 team formally opens new Silverstone facility
Formula 1
Formula 1
Andretti F1 team formally opens new Silverstone facility
More from
McLaren
The figures that show Mercedes has lost its supremacy in F1 2026
Formula 1
Formula 1
United States GP
The figures that show Mercedes has lost its supremacy in F1 2026
McLaren held fresh talks after Singapore GP clash as Lando Norris promises to "make better decisions"
Formula 1
Formula 1
United States GP
McLaren held fresh talks after Singapore GP clash as Lando Norris promises to "make better decisions"
Latest news
Jorge Martin the slowest Aprilia in Australia practice: “I'm used to riding with the Ducati here”
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Australian GP
23 min
Jorge Martin the slowest Aprilia in Australia practice: “I'm used to riding with the Ducati here”
2027 Winter Series calendar: Three series across five circuits
General
Misc General 49 min
2027 Winter Series calendar: Three series across five circuits
Ducati says Aprilia “can do whatever they want” amid team order talks in MotoGP
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Australian GP
1 h
Ducati says Aprilia “can do whatever they want” amid team order talks in MotoGP
Why it's now Oliver Bearman versus Rafael Camara for the next Ferrari vacancy
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
United States GP
1 h
Why it's now Oliver Bearman versus Rafael Camara for the next Ferrari vacancy
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe