Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMercedes

Hamilton warns of 'disaster' with new tyre guidelines

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Lewis Hamilton says new guidelines suggested by Pirelli for the Italian Grand Prix could prove to be "a disaster" if enforced.

Pirelli has advised the teams over strict cambers and tyre pressures in the wake of the failures seen at the Belgian Grand Prix, having opted for the soft and medium compounds at Monza. While the guidelines could be changed ahead of Friday practice, Hamilton is worried the initial suggestions are too extreme.

Asked about the findings of Pirelli's investigations in to the failures at Spa, Hamilton replied: "I don’t really have an answer for the explanation.

"I feel comfortable coming here and running what we had before. We had a very difficult corner – Eau Rouge – which takes a huge amount of g-force and pressure, which I am sure didn’t help. Here you don’t have that.

"In terms of putting the pressures up, I don't believe that it is the right way – but then they might not do it anyways. I don't really have an answer to the explanation, but I feel comfortable coming here and running what we had before.

"I don't think any of us has tried 5psi more in these tyres because they're not designed to have 5psi more – we work in a range and it's the optimum range. We'll be moving out of the optimum range of the tyre and using a different part of the tyre, which means there'll be more wear and less grip – it's going to be a disaster!”

Click here for Chris Medland's Italian Grand Prix preview and bold podium prediction.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.