by VALERIO BARRETTA
F1 China, Pirelli’s comment on the Sprint Qualifying
The Shanghai Sprint Qualifying was very chaotic, due to several factors. Both in FP1 and in the first fight for pole position, a section of the turn-5 escape route went up in flames, in the decisive SQ3 the FIA intervened, incomprehensibly removing some times, all under incessant rain and with drivers who they drove on eggs.
The track preparation work, with the pouring, worsened the grip in the wet bitumen spilled onto the track which complicated the situation for the drivers in SQ3. A job of which, however, Pirelli was not at all aware.
Isola’s words
“The most important information is that I believe the track will change a lot over the weekend, because this bitumen layer is disappearing, especially on the race line. When they pass over this layer the grip level is good, so I expect the situation on the line to be a little worse than on other parts of the track. But it’s just a guess, because we weren’t informed about this type of work on the track. We are trying to understand what will happen, but a lot of track evolution is expected“, this is the comment of Mario Isola, director of the Pirelli motorsport section.
“The new thing is this layer of bitumen that they put over the track. There was no resurfacing and no changes other than some to the curbs, but not to the track. As usual, we measure the roughness of the track and the level of grip with our system: we found some, let’s say, inconsistencies in the grip on the circuit, and I think the drivers highlighted this too“.
