26 Aug 2005
Tyre enquiry complete, say Williams
Team cannot pinpoint cause, but confident of cure
Williams have concluded their investigation into the tyre incidents in Turkey, which saw Mark Webber and Nick Heidfeld forced to withdraw from the race after each suffering two right-rear failures.
With no other Michelin teams experiencing similar problems, attention immediately focussed on the FW27 and now Williams have determined as far as possible that a set of conditions spanning mechanical set-up, bodywork configuration and tyre deflections caused the failures.
“To address the tyre incidents that we experienced in Istanbul, we have worked through all the possible variables, such as pressure and camber, with Michelin,” said Williams technical director Sam Michael. “In the Williams R&D labs at Grove we also performed some loaded tyre tests to check what type of deflections the tyres would have seen during the lap. Finally, at the test in Monza this week, we went through various trims of the bodywork to ensure that there is no possibility for the tyre to touch anything on the car.”
Williams also confirmed that although the FW27’s specification in this area had raced without incident in previous Grands Prix, a number of precautionary changes have been made to the car ahead of next weekend’s Italian Grand Prix and engineers are confident there will be no repeat of the Istanbul problems.
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