The Qatar GP weekend is supposed to be a thrilling showdown, but things have taken a sudden turn that has put the whole paddock on edge. Friday’s running at Lusail did not just raise eyebrows, but also sparked a sudden concern across the garages about a very important factor: tires.
The news dropped fast and sparked immediate panic across the pit lane, and now, both the sprint and Sunday’s grand prix could have a chance of being seriously affected.
Pirelli Steps Into Qatar With Some Concerns
Pirelli supplies tires to every team on the grid and revealed that they discovered several deep gravel cuts on the tires after last night’s sessions. These were not light scratches and were deep enough to reach the construction layer of the tire but luckily, none of the tire cords were actually damaged.
Pirelli’s chief engineer, Simone Berra explained that the damage was most likely caused by loose gravel being dragged across the kerbs by drivers who pushed a little too wide, and because of that tires were getting into contact with very sharp gravel. Berra said the stones were sharper than what is usually found at other tracks, and that made the tires much more vulnerable than expected.
“I’ve seen a couple of cuts that were quite deep,” he admitted. “They reached the construction, but they didn’t cut any cords, luckily. Obviously if you expose the construction and you pass continuously on this gravel, then you can risk having a puncture.”
To make the situation even trickier, this is already a high stress weekend for tires due to the high temperatures involved and hence, Pirelli has set a maximum usage of 25 laps per set. Teams are already assessing their tire mileage carefully, and now, they have to worry about gravel damage on top of that, which is not exactly the calm and tidy start anybody wanted.
New Gravel Beds Have Created an Unexpected Problem for F1 Teams
The gravel beds at Turns 6, 10, and 16 were updated for this year and the gravel zone at Turn 14 was extended. However, the stones used are not rounded and smooth, and are in fact sharp enough to cut straight into tires when cars skim across them.
“It’s quite sharp because it has generated these cuts quite easily,” Berra added. “It seems sharper than other circuits.”
Throughout practice and sprint qualifying, several drivers used every inch of the kerbs, and that brought gravel onto the racing line, and the tires picked up damage from that far too easily. It puts the teams in a strange situation, as pushing too hard creates this risk, but playing safe might sacrifice performance.
For now, Pirelli is not calling for immediate drastic changes and instead will monitor tire conditions constantly along with the FIA. Race control is prepared to use a red flag or deploy a safety car to clean the track if gravel becomes a major threat during the sprint or the race. Therefore, the monitoring will never stop during the weekend.
There is no panic inside the team garages yet, but there is definitely caution, as they would need to plan their strategy very carefully and hope that a surprise puncture does not ruin a race. The drivers will want to race flat ou,t but this weekend might demand patience instead of pure aggression.
The Qatar GP is heading into the sprint and qualifying sessions today with uncertainty hanging in the air. Everyone hopes this situation stays under control so the focus can return to the track rather than on the gravel.