Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton has declared the current state of the car’s tyres unsafe , and has implored the sports’ officials to change regulations to solve the matter.
Hamilton , who suffered a tyre failure on the seventh lap of the British Grand Prix whilst he was leading but still recovered to finish fourth, remarked after the race, “It needs to be done straight away, it’s obviously an issue. It was the first time in my career I’ve ever felt it was dangerous.”
He went on to add, “After my incident I was definitely nervous for the rest of the race that the tyres might go again. Safety is the biggest issue. It’s just unacceptable really. It’s only when someone gets hurt that someone will do something about it.”
Discussing any attempt to solve the issue, the 2008 world champion noted, “It’s a waste of time talking to the FIA and if they don’t do anything that says a lot about them. We had that tyre test to develop and improve the tyre and after that test they didn’t do anything about it.”
Hamilton’s former McLaren teammate, Jenson Button agreed with him too, stating, “We’ve had five tyres over the last few days, it’s a big issue and something that needs to be sorted out. [Incidents] happening at 300kph, like for Checo [McLaren driver Sergio Perez’s nickname], is not right. It’s not just dangerous for the driver in the car, it’s dangerous for all the other cars. The cars behind [shouldn’t] get hit by rubber that has metal in it. It’s got to change. I don’t think anything needs to be said. We all know the situation.”
In total there were six tyre failures during the race, with Hamilton, Felipe Massa, Perez, Fernando Alonso, Esteben Gutierrez, and Jean-Eric Verge, having to deal with these explosions at speeds of around 300 kilometres an hour.
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