UNDER (TYRE) PRESSURE
With Pirelli suspicious of teams manipulating tyre pressures so they are legal, the FIA imposed a new system for checking pressures. In a note sent to teams by race director Charlie Whiting, the governing body explained that pressures would be monitored “before the wheels are fitted to the car” from the Austrian Grand Prix onwards.
Some teams would apparently heat the brakes and rims artificially before the wheels are fitted to the car in order to temporarily increase the pressures and pass Pirelli’s control procedures. The tyres would then cool down during the formation lap, thus dropping its pressures to a more competitive level.
