Pirelli: New bonding process not to blame for tire failures
However, they have ruled out the new bonding process used on tires ahead of the race at Silverstone as being at fault.
Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari’s Felipe Massa, Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne and McLaren’s Sergio Perez all suffered tire failures, prompting Pirelli to launch a thorough investigation ahead of next weekend’s German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring.
“There have obviously been some issues with rear-left tire failures which we have not seen before," said Pirelli’s motorsport director Paul Hembery. “We are taking the situation very seriously and we are currently investigating all tires to determine the cause as soon as possible, ahead of the next Grand Prix in Germany.
“At the moment, we can’t really say much more until we have fully investigated and analyzed all of these incidents, which is our top priority. However, we can exclude that the new bonding process, which we introduced at this race, is at cause for the tire failures we have seen today.
“There might be some aspect to this circuit that impacts specifically on the latest version of our 2013 specification tires but at this point we do not want to speculate and will now put together all the evidence to find out what happened and then take appropriate next steps should these be required."