During the Brazilian Grand Prix weekend, word spread that
Red Bull Racing suspected several competitors, including McLaren, of adding
water to its tyres in order to keep those tires cooler.
Adding liquid to tyres with an eye to cooling them would
be directly against the rules, but according to Pirelli, nothing unusual has
turned up when analysing tyres after a race weekend.
Pirelli report no suspicious tyre activity
Earlier in the Brazilian Grand Prix weekend, Auto
Motor und Sport reported that Red Bull Racing stated it suspected several
teams, including McLaren, of injecting water into their Pirelli tyres in order
to improve cooling.
Motorsport.com now reports that these suspicions
erupted after the Singapore Grand Prix.
Per various reports, Red Bull suspected that some of its
competitors were injecting small amounts of water into their tires via the
valves. The amount of water would have been large enough to make for an
appreciable change in tyre temperatures, but not so large as to be detected by
Pirelli after the race.
As with many aspects of F1, tires are extremely well
regulated. Every tyre features a barcode scanned by Pirelli to track its use,
and Pirelli itself mounts a team’s tyre onto its wheels.
Further, Pirelli technicians and other scrutineers are
omnipresent forces in the Formula 1 paddock. This would make it extremely
challenging — though not impossible — to manipulate the tyres without being
caught.
According to Motorsport.com, initial concerns
were raised in Singapore when moisture was spotted inside the wheel rims after
the tyres were stripped from the cars after the race.
The FIA has been investigating this matter, and head of
single seats, Nikolas Tombazis, also spoke with Pirelli to request additional
oversight.
However, Pirelli told Motorsport.com that
it has not noticed any abnormal behavior.
“I cannot see anything strange from the data we have,” Mario
Isola, Pirelli’s head of F1 and car racing, said. “I don’t have any evidence.”
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