Pirelli to approach FIA over camber limit enforcement
Pirelli plans to discuss the idea of mandatory camber limits with the FIA ahead of qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix, in a bid to ensure there is no chance of teams encountering excessive blistering problems in the Monza race
With several teams experiencing some degree of blistering in Friday practice at Monza, Pirelli's director of motorsport Paul Hembery thinks that it may be best to give serious thought to enforcing the 3.25-degree limit that his company has recommended for this weekend.
And his determination has been increased by the fact that some teams were running in Friday practice with camber levels that exceeded Pirelli's guideline - an action that contributed to the Red Bull Racing blistering controversy at Spa.
When asked by AUTOSPORT whether Pirelli will now force teams to stick to the 3.25-degrees front camber limit, Hembery said: "I think in a race like Monza, because of the high speed, it can create issues with blistering. So we would be prudent to ask for it to be maintained and enforced. That is something we will have to talk to the FIA about tonight."
Hembery said that the blisters experienced in Friday practice were not of major concern, but did highlight the unique demands of the Monza circuit.
"I would be surprised if on long runs you would not find some evidence of blistering," explained Hembery. "It was quite varied. Some people were struggling more than others; some people did not get any at all, so we have a full spectrum of things.
"But there was nothing that we have not seen in a number of other events, nothing that we would call a dramatic concern. The medium tyre was performing very well and this morning we had a number of cars doing 24 laps, and this afternoon we had people doing 15 laps on the softer tyre as well. That is a little bit more than we expected.
"We tend to be here rear tyre limited in terms of consumption so the front tyre is having an easier time than maybe it would have done at Spa."
Hembery said he expected Pirelli to inform the teams tonight that it would be sticking to the conservative 3.25-degree limit that it proposed ahead of the event - despite there having been some consideration to reducing it even more.
"We will keep our pre-race prescription really," he said. "We wanted to have a run this morning. There was some concern that maybe it was a bit too conservative and might generate other problems, but the reality is it hasn't done so we are very happy to maintain our advice to the teams."
And when asked if all teams had respected the new limit, Hembery said: "Um... I think there was some exploratory work done. But we are going to keep to that limit."
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