Drivers concerned after punctures strike again at the Nürburgring

After a number of tyre issues, from vibrations, blisters to full-blown punctures at the Nürburgring Nordschleife, drivers have voiced their concerns over safety at one of the world’s most famous race tracks.

The two Volvos of Nicky Catsburg and Thed Björk both suffered tyre blow-outs in the first 60-minute test session.

Problems struck again in the second track activity, Free Practice 1, when Citroën’s Rob Huff was forced to abort his final lap after a two-stage blister on one of his Yokohama tyres, while Hondas’ Norbert Michelisz narrowly managed to avoid smashing into the barriers when his tyre gave up on his final flying lap in the session.

Yokohama have reportedly informed the teams they’re running below the recommended settings, but the teams don’t believe the tyre pressures are the issue, and that it’s the lack of a bespoke tyre for the special event on the WTCC calendar that’s the issue.

“This is the most dangerous circuit we go to, this is the last place you want to struggle with the tyres,” said a concerned Norbert Michelisz after practice.

“The pressures for sure are not too low, and I cannot imagine it being a problem of camber or pressure. It’s the nature of the track and the stress put on the tyre. I don’t know if the load on this particular set of tyre at a previous weekend was a bit high and it just collapsed here, but I do think it’s related to the nature of the circuit, as every team struggles with punctures.”

Münnich Motorsport’s Rob Huff was more forthright. The British driver suffered a major crash in practice at the circuit last year while racing for Honda, with the team forced to change his engine. Though Huff only suffered a blister today, it was on a set of tyres which had only done one run in qualifying before in Hungary.

“The whole tyre has come away from the carcus. I’ve said to them nothing has caused it, but Yokohama have said there’s been a lock up from when I’ve been turning left and it gains all that camber,” Huff told TouringCarTimes. “But the car’s designed so that the inside wheel stands up in the corner, so the camber disappears completely.”

With the tyre compounds unchanged in the last two years, Huff said it’s beyond time something is done to produce a special tyre for the Nürburgring.

“Everyone who races GTs at the Nurburgring, they have a specific Nürburgring tyre. It’s the same in the BTCC, where Dunlop make a specific Thruxton tyre.

“Some circuits you don’t worry about so much, but circuits like this where you have five or six corners at 260km/h, your biggest fear isn’t ‘is my balance going to be OK, will I lose the rear when I turn in’; your fear is ‘what if I get a puncture on my front-right tyre now as I’m going through this left-hander’, and it’s happening a lot.

“Yokohama can say all day long that we’re running too low pressures, but if we run the pressures they want us to run, at the end of the lap we’ll be at 2.6, 2.7 bar, the tyres won’t be working – they’ll have melted. This is one thing in a World Championship that we shouldn’t have to be worrying about.”