Pirelli still in the dark over Buemi test crash

Michelle Foster
Pirelli-tyres-worn-PA

Pirelli have revealed the tyre compounds for the first eight rounds of the 2020 season.

Pirelli are still investigating the cause of Sebastien Buemi’s test crash, admitting they don’t know if it was tyre related or an issue with the car.

Following the British Grand Prix, Buemi took part in a Pirelli tyres test with Red Bull, helping the Italian tyre manufacturer develop their 2020 tyres.

The Swiss driver crashed heavily coming out of the flat-out Abbey corner at the Silverstone circuit.

The car suffered severe damage while Buemi was taken to the medical centre where he was given the all-clear.

Pirelli have yet to establish the cause of the crash with the company’s F1 boss Mario Isola revealing that this was not the first time that that specific tyre had been put through its paces out on track.

“We are investigating the tyre,” he explained to Autosport. “It takes some time because we had the tyre back from Silverstone at the beginning of the week.

“Obviously it requires an extensive investigation, together with Red Bull we are working to understand the reason for this failure, and where it started from.

“The same prototype was tested at Spielberg, with Alfa Romeo, and it was tested on Day One in Silverstone with both Williams and Red Bull.

“It was a construction that was already well known and already tested.

“It was the in-lap of the run, it happened at Turn 1. The rear left is in pieces, but we have to investigate on the other three from the same set, and the other prototypes of the same type.

“We have all the videos, we have the onboard cameras that were fitted on the car, we have the telemetry of the car.

“We have a lot of data to analyse, that’s why it’s taking a bit of time.

“It’s not very, very clear. You see the tyre and the rear suspension is breaking down altogether, so it’s difficult to understand what happened exactly.

“But it’s a good help to have footage from a GoPro, from the circuit, and so on.

“Obviously it is a priority for us, we have people dedicated to that, we want to discover as soon as possible.

“We don’t have another test tomorrow, but we want to know in advance.”

Pirelli are hoping to have a cause by next week, however, Isola says their initial findings are that there is “nothing” wrong with the tyre.

He added: “We want to conclude this investigation by next week, and hopefully we can find something.

“We don’t want to exclude anything, to make sure we are investigating 360 degrees, not forgetting anything.

“We are taking into consideration the tyre, the materials, the interaction with the car, and so on. I don’t have any element which is giving us a direction.

“I cannot confirm or deny anything until I have evidence. If we find evidence of any type then we can address the investigation on a specific cause of the failure.

“But at the moment all the investigations are saying that there is nothing wrong with the tyre or with the material or the production process or with the indoor testing, so it’s difficult to tell you if we are going in this direction or that direction.”

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