Breaking news
Formula 1 Brazilian GP
Williams: FIA measurement was wrong
Williams says it has no idea as to why the FIA's tyre temperature reading on Felipe Massa's car showed it to be too hot, after revealing its own sensors had it comfortably within the limits.
Jonathan Noble
Edited: Nov 15, 2015, 9:19 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Massa was excluded from eighth place in the Brazilian Grand Prix after the FIA discovered that the right rear tyre on his Williams was 27 degrees over the limit allowed.
Williams performance chief Rob Smedley said the outfit is baffled as to why the FIA's infra-red gun reading showed the tyre to be at 137 degrees, because its own data suggested the tyre was at 107.
"We have two independent sensors, the first one is the PT1000 which sits inside the tyre blanket and tells us what the surface temperature is, and that one was always in compliance with the regulations," explained Smedley, who confirmed the team would be appealing.
"In fact, the last time we could read it, when they took the set off to the grid, it was about 104 degrees.
"The next independent measure we have is from the car data (see photo). It shows the right rear tyre temperature on Massa's car was 107 degrees.
"So we have two independent sensors, they both say we are in compliance with regulations and we have data to back it up.
"In addition, we have had independent correlation from our blanket temperatures sensors and car temperature sensors to the FIA guns, which Pirelli did for us after all the fuss with Mercedes in Italy.
"And in addition to that, we have also bought exactly the same [IR] sensor that the FIA uses and we do random checks throughout the weekend to ensure it doesn't happen.
"For us it is critical that we understand where this problem came from, but we have three independent measures and none of them give anything like the FIA measurement on the grid."
When asked why, if the team's own data showed the tyre to be within the limits, the FIA reading was so far out, he said: "No idea. That is why we have served notice of appeal.
"There was no explanation whatsoever. They explained to us that this is reference measurement because it is the FIA measurement and so this is the one that counts. The other three that we have are of less consequence."
Pressure clue
Smedley also made clear that there was no unusual rise in pressure inside of the tyre, which would have happened if the tyre had been 27 degrees higher than they thought it was.
"If it was 27 degrees higher, we would see that," he said. "You are probably talking about 2.4-3 psi higher, but the bleed the engineer did on the grid was entirely normal.
"What the engineers would have seen [with a hotter tyre] would be that we were bleeding out an awful lot more pressure than we had been for the rest of the weekend.
"That would have been an anomalous amount of pressure, 3 psi more than he is normally bleeding out, to get down to the Pirelli minimum. That would have been flagged at some point and nothing has."
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 Brazilian GP: Vettel on the podium, Raikkonen fourth
Next article Bottas finished fifth and Massa eighth before being excluded from results in today’s Brazilian GP
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Jonathan Noble
Brundle awarded OBE in King’s New Year’s honours
Formula 1
Formula 1
Brundle awarded OBE in King’s New Year’s honours
The new rules dilemma that will define the 2025 F1 season
Formula 1
Formula 1
The new rules dilemma that will define the 2025 F1 season
Verstappen issues Red Bull title warning in push for RB21 progress
Formula 1
Formula 1
Australian GP
Verstappen issues Red Bull title warning in push for RB21 progress
More from
Felipe Massa
On this day: Michael Schumacher wins… and stuns tifosi with F1 retirement
Formula 1
Formula 1
Italian GP
On this day: Michael Schumacher wins… and stuns tifosi with F1 retirement
Defendant ordered to pay £250,000 legal fees in Felipe Massa F1 title case
Formula 1
Formula 1
Defendant ordered to pay £250,000 legal fees in Felipe Massa F1 title case
Felipe Massa’s F1 2008 lawsuit will proceed to trial
Formula 1
Formula 1
Las Vegas GP
Felipe Massa’s F1 2008 lawsuit will proceed to trial
More from
Williams
"It's horribly painful" - Williams drops 2026 car upgrades to benefit 2027
Formula 1
Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
"It's horribly painful" - Williams drops 2026 car upgrades to benefit 2027
What the Brazilian GP revealed about F1's ability to cope with rain
Formula 1
Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
What the Brazilian GP revealed about F1's ability to cope with rain
Latest news
Retaining Liam Lawson isn't enough – Red Bull must stop treating him like a failure
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1 3 h
Retaining Liam Lawson isn't enough – Red Bull must stop treating him like a failure
Yamaha may not be competitive immediately in MotoGP's 850cc era, says Pramac
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Qatar GP
7 h
Yamaha may not be competitive immediately in MotoGP's 850cc era, says Pramac
You Ask The Questions: Jack Miller
MotoGP
Qatar GP
You Ask The Questions: Jack Miller
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