We Could Be Set For A Chaotic Qatar GP After This FIA Tyre Ruling

Posted on October 8, 2023 | by Charley Williams Usually, we’re just given a sprinkle of rain to spice things up, but now, we’ve been given a three-stop race! Is this a gift from the racing Gods to provide us with an exciting Qatar GP? Or will it just be absolute chaos when everyone dives into the pits at the same time? ???? It has been decided that the FIA will mandate a maximum limit of 18 laps for new tyres, and any car deemed to have exceeded the tyre life lap limit will be reported to the Stewards as being run in an unsafe condition. Effectively, the Qatar GP has become a three-stop race. But why is this even an issue, we hear you ask? On Saturday, before any on-track action occurred, the FIA released a statement revealing that “a separation in the sidewall between the topping compound and the carcass cords” was discovered by Pirelli on the tyres that had been used for 20 laps – give or take – in Friday’s one and only FP1 session. They believed the issue was likely caused by the high-frequency interference between the tyre sidewall and the 50mm pyramid kerbs recently installed at the Lusail circuit. Some changes to the track were made at Turn 12 and 13, and we got to witness a bizarre 10-minute “familiarisation” session (or FP1.5, as one of our followers rightly named it!) before the Sprint Shootout took place. The FIA said that extensive tyre analysis would take place after the sprint, but due to the frequency of Safety Car interventions in yesterday’s Sprint, the tyre data available for analysis by Pirelli was insufficient. In some cases, tyres that were analysed from the Sprint did show the initial onset of the separation in the sidewall between the topping compound and the carcass cords of the tyres, so now here’s what has changed for the Qatar GP: A mandatory limit of 18 laps of total tyre life per set will be imposed, and the life of already used tyres will be taken into consideration, and the FIA and Pirelli will communicate to the teams the remaining available laps for each set of used tyres at their disposal for the race. This will either be one of the spiciest races of the season or a complete snoozefest. No in-between. ???? Do you think this will make the race a bit more exciting?