Button wants puncture answers
BAR-Honda star Jenson Button hopes that tyre supplier Michelin gets to the bottom of its Belgian Grand Prix tyre failures before testing begins at Monza tomorrow (Wednesday)
Button was one of three Michelin drivers to suffer high-speed right-rear tyre failures at Spa on Sunday, while Toyota test driver Ryan Briscoe had a left-rear deflation in free practice on Friday that caused a heavy shunt. This week's testing is being held at Monza - the fastest track on the F1 calendar.
"Hopefully they'll find out [the cause]," said Button. "You can't go racing like this, being unsure whether the tyre is going to last or not. You don't crash at 200mph unless you have a failure, and it was obviously a big shock.
"It's a pretty serious problem if you have four people have failures, and at over 200mph it can be very dangerous. It needs to be sorted out before we test [at Monza] even, not just before the race."
Michelin motorsport director Pierre Dupasquier has already launched an investigation into the Spa blow-outs, but admitted on Sunday that it was "bizarre" that all three punctures occurred at different times in the tyre's lifecycle. The kerbs on the exit of La Source seemed the most likely culprit, however.
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