Tyre failures raise questions around F1’s street circuits

What can one say about the weekend’s race in Baku, Azerbaijan? Amazing, incredible, unbelievable – and not all with a favourable meaning.

One must agree most street circuits produce interesting and unpredictable results. The idea of Formula One cars on roads suitable for slow moving traffic on a normal business day does appear bizarre. But it is a phenomenon that has been on motorsport calendars of the world for many years and is likely to multiply as the powers that be search for more excitement right on the doorstep of “destination” cities.

Monaco, Baku, Sochi, Marina Bay, Melbourne and Jeddah are current street circuits with Miami appearing next year and Mercedes team chief Toto Wolff attempting to entice London. All very nice but many residents are fighting against such events interfering with their normal lives due to noise levels and road closures. Not everyone is an F1 fan.

That apart, any city circuit must be well thought through, as some just cannot adapt to racing. I have nothing against such tracks but am concerned some of the designs of street circuits are causing too much of an influence on the outcome of the race.

Last weekend we witnessed no fewer than four red flags during qualifying and one within three laps of the end of the race. Removing the wreckage and clearing all the debris requires a considerable amount of time and while competitors wait for the restart, brakes and tyres are rapidly cooling down and this never bodes well for the teams.

Modern performance cars utilise a high quantity of kevlar and carbon fibre materials and when this breaks up shards of razor sharp debris are scattered far and wide on the track. Contact between tyres and such remnants almost always result in tyre damage and rapid deflation which could cause accidents – as we saw last Sunday. Clearing this is never an easy task and in many cases is tackled by marshals armed with brooms.

Total cleaning is almost impossible, particularly when you consider street circuits run between walls and buildings creating artificial canyons and these funnel winds further distributing the extremely lightweight debris.

Last weekend we saw examples of such incidents and the effect on the race weekend. Q3 was a case in point when several competitors could not complete their qualifying runs due to damaged vehicles and wreckage blocking the track. This was made more difficult due to the number areas that do not allow easy access for recovery or cleaning vehicles.

Whether the tyre incidents we saw on Sunday with Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and race leader Max Verstappen’s Red Bull were due to punctures or tyre issues, we do not know. But, both influenced the race, particularly Verstappen, who lost an almost definite win.

Agreed, this type of problem exists at any race circuit, but a street circuit makes life very difficult as walls in close proximity keeps the minute particles of debris somewhere on the track and constantly changing position due to wind.

If you think I am anti-Baku, you are wrong. It is a great, challenging circuit with one problem – its route cannot guarantee a clean race as it is hugely difficult to retrieve cars that break down or crash.

Monaco is a tight circuit but red flags are no longer that common. Hopefully future street circuits can avoid such pitfalls. Regarding the tyre issues seen, Pirelli have flown tyres from most of the teams back to their factory to investigate the rapid deflation issues and currently believe it was due to track debris.

A large cut in one of Lewis Hamilton’s tyres seemed to indicate this could be the answer. We await the final verdict, and this could be interesting. Sergio Perez’s victory in Baku was fantastic, having held off Hamilton for most of the race, then gaining the upper hand at the restart to take the chequered flag. Then he was told urgently by his engineer to stop the car as he crossed the line. Apparently the Mexican’s Red Bull had lost all hydraulic pressure.