70th Anniversary Grand Prix – Pirelli have released the results of their investigation into the reason behind Daniil Kvyat’s scary tyre failure during last week’s British Grand Prix.
Pirelli have concluded their investigation into why Daniil Kvyat suffered a right rear puncture during last weekend’s race at Silverstone. The Russian driver was left a passenger in a frightening crash at the fast Maggotts & Becketts sequence of corners after his right rear tyre failed on turn-in.
Pirelli sent Kvyat’s rear tyre back to Milan for analysis and found a mechanical issue was to blame for the failure.
“Together with Scuderia AlphaTauri, Pirelli has concluded an investigation into the precise cause of the incident that resulted in Daniil Kvyat hitting the wall during the British Grand Prix on lap 12.” said a statement from Pirelli.
“A separate mechanical issue led to the inside of the right-rear wheel rim overheating, which in turn burned the bead of the tyre (the part of the tyre that connects the rubber to the wheel).”
“As a result, the bead was no longer able to seal the tyre onto the rim. This is what caused the subsequent deflation, with the tyre
itself playing no part in the cause of the accident.”
This was a separate issue to the front-left tyre failures that hit both Mercedes drivers and McLaren’s Carlos Sainz in the closing laps, which was covered in a previous investigation. In those cases, Pirelli said that the circumstances of the race, ie. a longer than expected stint, for cars significantly faster than last year’s, led to those failures.
