Debris, not tyre failure likely cause of Lance Stroll and Max Verstappen crashes: Pirelli

The Azerbaijan Grand Prix (GP) on Sunday was possibly the most unpredictable and dramatic race of the current Formula 1 (F1) season so far. The race saw Red Bull’s Sergio Perez finish in the first place, followed by Sebastian Vettel and Pierre Gasly. No one expected the three to finish on the podium. Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen, and Charles Leclerc were favourites to finish in the top 3. However, two of the three, Verstappen and Hamilton, had no choice but to retire from the race prematurely over reported tyre failure. Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll also crashed out of the race over a tyre failure. However, Pirelli, the company that manufactures tires for the automobiles, said that that was not the case.

“I believe I can exclude that failures were due to tyre wear, because it’s not a matter of tyre wear. The rear-left tyre is not the most stressed tyre in Baku because… it’s obviously the rear-right,” said Mario Isola, Pirelli’s Head of F1 and Car Racing.

“I don’t want to give any preliminary conclusions. But it seems that it is a cut due to debris, because as I said, it’s not the most stressed tyre. We had other cars with the same number of laps [on the] same tyres without any issue. So the preliminary investigation is that it is probably due to an external factor, or debris, or kerb or whatever,” he added.

“Another element was there was no sign, or any warning according to the teams. We have to receive the telemetry from them but what they told us was that there was no warning, no vibration nothing to seem that there would be something [wrong] in the tyres,” the Pirelli chief concluded.

Debris from Lance’s car factor behind Max’s crash

Isola also suggested that Verstappen’s crash might not be a tire issue at all. He suggested that the Red Bull driver might have run over debris remaining from the Lance Stroll crash earlier. Isola said that it might have been the primary reason behind the tyres giving out, and not because of any manufacturing shortfall.

“For Max, it could be debris from Lance’s car,” said Isola.

“For Lance, honestly I don’t know because there were no incidents before his crash, so I cannot exclude that there was a part of something on track,” he concluded.