Fears over doable tyre failures on the Qatar Grand Prix have led the FIA to schedule an additional observe session on Saturday.
New guidelines on observe limits will likely be imposed at turns 12 and 13. Drivers could have their first alternative to evaluate them throughout a particular, 10-minute observe familiarisation session which will likely be held at 4pm native time, the unique beginning time for at present’s dash race qualifying session.
The FIA has due to this fact introduced qualifying for at present’s dash race will likely be delayed by 20 minutes and happen at 4:20pm native time.
The revised observe limits will likely be imposed by a repositioning of the white line one the surface of turns 12 and 13. It is going to be moved in direction of the within of the observe by 80 centimetres.
The change has been introduced after F1’s official tyre provider Pirelli found issues on many tyres utilized by drivers in the course of the sole hour of observe on the Losail Worldwide Circuit yesterday. “A separation within the sidewall between the topping compound and the carcass cords on lots of tyres that have been checked was found,” mentioned the FIA in an announcement.
Drivers will run longer stints on their tyres within the dash race and grand prix than they did in observe. That has raised fears of potential tyre failures.
“It’s the view of the FIA and Pirelli {that a} vital variety of further laps on these tyres might lead to circumferential injury of the tyres with subsequent air loss, and tyres analysed with decrease lap numbers confirmed a much-reduced extent of the problem,” mentioned the FIA in an announcement.
The FIA pinpointed new kerbs put in on the circuit this yr for contributing to the issue. “This situation has doubtless been brought on by the high-frequency interference between the tyre sidewall and the 50mm ‘pyramid’ kerbs used extensively at this circuit, aggravated by the propensity to journey these kerbs.”
Additional evaluation of the tyres will happen following at present’s 19-lap dash race. The FIA says it’s ready to introduce additional restrictions if wanted, together with probably forbidding drivers from operating greater than 20 laps on a brand new set of tyres, or requiring them to alter tyres at the very least 3 times in the course of the race.
F1’s sporting rules state the dash race qualifying session should start “a minimum of 4 and a half (4.5) hours earlier than the scheduled begin of the dash” race. The beginning time of the dash race is due to this fact additionally prone to be put again.
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