Pirelli not taking all the blame

Paul Hembery

(GMM) Paul Hembery on Friday insisted Pirelli can not take all the blame for the tire-exploding chaos of last weekend's British grand prix.

Some teams had hit back at their Italian supplier, after Pirelli pointed the finger at those running extreme tire pressures, wheel cambers and swapping rear tires left to right.

"Just to be clear," McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh told Britain's Sky on Friday, "we always ran within the correct pressures and the correct cambers and everything we did was agreed with Pirelli."

It's on Whitmarsh's last point that Pirelli boss Hembery does take some blame — the tire-swapping, which teams reportedly discovered could add 20 per cent to the tires' lifespan.

"That's our fault," Hembery is quoted by Germany's Auto Motor und Sport.

"Early in the season we had a request from McLaren and saw no reason why we shouldn't allow it. We thought it was harmless."

But according to Pirelli, the practice ultimately caused most of the harm at Silverstone, with the internal steel belt no longer properly spreading the load in the fast corners.

As for the camber and pressures, Hembery added: "We could not verify the data, because the teams were not always open with us.

"But with the camber, you can tell just by looking that some were going over the top."

And he said he is "sure" some teams ignored Pirelli's recommendations about pressures.