Pirelli admit mistakes were made with Silverstone tyres

It was a shift in proportional blame given that, earlier in the week, Pirelli had pointed more of an accusing finger at the teams for the blow-outs, which included Lewis Hamilton, race leader at the time. Pirelli highlighted a number of factors behind the failures, among them the practice of the teams swopping their rear tyres, too-high pressures and excessive cambers. Adopting a more conciliatory tone, Hembery said: “We underestimated the impact of swapping tyres with the cars two and three seconds per lap quicker this season. When you swap them around, it creates a weakness with the metallic belt. We got that wrong. We need to get it right going forward.
“There were secondary issues, which have been mentioned, but I don’t want to take away from the fact that it was our responsibility. Going forward, though, there are things we need to be much more rigid on and that’s where we are at.
For this weekend’s German Grand Prix only, the cars are running on Kevlar-belted rears as opposed to steel as it is more resistant to punctures. From the race in Hungary later this month, the tyres will comprise last year’s structure with this year’s compounds. Asked as to how certain he could be of their safety, he replied: “We wouldn’t be racing if we didn’t feel they were safe.”