Zak Brown demands "total transparency" over FIA tyre investigation

McLaren

Brown demands "total transparency" over FIA tyre investigation

Pirelli suffered two blowouts during the Azerbaijan Grand prix last time out

Sam Hall

Sunday 20 June 2021 10:30

McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown has criticised the FIA's response to the high-speed tyre failures suffered by Max Verstappen and Lance Stroll's cars in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, demanding "total transparency" over the issue.

Aston Martin and Red Bull suffered near-identical tyre blowouts two weeks ago and although Pirelli issued a lengthy technical directive to teams dictating new protocols for tyre usage, Brown remains unsure of the cause of the failures.

Asked if he was satisfied by the way the FIA had responded to the report, Brown said bluntly: "No. I think we need, especially when something comes to safety, total transparency from Pirelli and the FIA so we can understand exactly what happened.

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“I think when you come to things that are safety-related and the importance of safety, there needs to be complete transparency as to what happened to make sure that all the teams can understand and make sure that it doesn’t happen to them.”

Teams and Pirelli contradict each other

A common theme across statements issued by Red Bull, Aston Martin and Pirelli was that the teams involved had not contravened regulations regarding tyre pressures.

Brown added: “I don’t think they explained in detail what happened. I think we are all left kind of guessing at what we think happened and then of course you have seen the other teams contradict what has been stated.

“So the reality is that we don’t know in a very black and white manner what happened.

"We kind of have a general idea but then you have Pirelli and the two teams, they certainly don’t seem to be aligned in what happened, and therefore I think we need to understand what happened.”