17/06/2021
NEWS STORY
Describing the outcome of Pirelli's investigation into his Baku tyre failure as "vague", Max Verstappen insists the Italian manufacturer is wrong to shift the blame to the teams.
If anything came out of Pirelli's investigation into the high-profile failures that Lance Stroll and Max Verstappen suffered on the streets of Baku two weeks ago it was that that the Italian manufacturers were not to blame.
Ruling out debris or a defect in the tyres construction, Pirelli appeared to shift the blame on to driving practices and the teams.
Indeed, a technical directive subsequently sent to all the teams ahead of this weekend's French Grand Prix focusses on the dark arts of tyre pressure manipulation.
Sherlock Hamilton, who, along with colleague Professor Wolff, had previously cracked the mysterious case of the flexing wing, was once again displaying his eminent detective skills, observing Red Bull's practice of prematurely removing the tyre blankets on Verstappen's car in Spain.
However, as the French Grand Prix weekend gets underway, Verstappen insists that blame for the failures does not rest with the teams.
"Of course, they explained that they don't have measurement tools during the race, but we gave them our tyre pressures and they were within the limits they set," said the Dutchman in reference to the tyre pressures. "If those limits are not correct, there is nothing we can do about it, we just follow what is possible within the rules.
"If that means that we have to go up on pressures, we will... everyone will go up on pressures," he continued. "But they say they didn't have the correct measurements, but we gave it to them after the race and it was shown that we didn't do anything wrong there. And also, Aston Martin didn't do anything wrong.
"So, they cannot put the blame on us," he insisted. "I think they have to look at themselves. And we are here, happy to help, of course, with everything.
"They already went up on pressure from Friday to Saturday, so that means something," he added, referring to the fact that Pirelli changed the recommended pressures over the course of the Baku weekend. "Maybe it wasn't enough. We'll go up on pressures here, for sure, and hopefully that's enough."
Referring to Pirelli's statement, Verstappen admitted: "For me it was just a bit vague what came out. The only thing I can say is that from our side, I think the team did everything like they should have done. They followed all the guidelines with tyre pressures and stuff. So, there was nothing to be found there.
"For sure we'll go up on pressures here for this weekend. I'm 100% sure we will. Probably it has something to do with that, what happened in Baku, but it would also be nice to just know if it was tyre pressure related.
"Pirelli should just speak out," he concluded, "it would be a bit easier to understand and I think the explanation we got so far wasn't enough because the team didn't do anything wrong."
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