Bridgestone believes that Lewis Hamilton’s tyre failure in the Turkish Grand Prix was caused by delamination due to a phenomenon known as ‘chunking’.

However, the Japanese tyre manufacturer remains unsure of the exact circumstances that led to the failure, which is why detailed examination of the rubber is still taking place at its Japanese headquarters.

Bridgestone’s director of motorsport tyre development Hirohide Hamashima took the tyre with him from Istanbul Park to Japan after Sunday’s race because it needed thorough analysis that was only possible at the company’s headquarters.

Initial work on the tyre has ruled out a failure caused by debris and Bridgestone believes the problem was the result of excessive ‘chunking’.

This is when small bits of rubber, often referred to as marbles, get stuck to the tyre and form larger chunks. These then harden on the surface, and can eventually damage the tyre underneath.

Hamashima said that the initial prognosis is that ‘chunking’ was the cause, although he made it clear that Bridgestone did not know exactly what forces were in place to then cause the tyre to fail.

“It was delamination caused by excessive ‘chunking’,” Hamashima told autosport.com. “Lewis was suffering from heavy understeer in Turn Eight and in order to correct that, he was turning the steering wheel a bit more.

“This produced the ‘chunking’, which then got hardened as he braked for Turn Nine. It seems that there was an (unexplained) extra force applied to where the chunk was, and this delaminated the tyre.”

Bridgestone want to try and find out if Hamilton hitting a kerb caused the excessive force that tipped his tyre over the edge. Several drivers experienced similar chunking of the tyres in Sunday’s race but Hamilton was the only one who suffered a failure.

Taken from www.autosport.com

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