As the dust begins to settle, those feelings are beginning to shift to disbelief at how Formula 1 has managed to get itself into such an unacceptable situation. Some would - and doubtless will - call it a crisis. To many minds, that would not be an exaggeration.
Perhaps the biggest concern is the fact that it should never have happened. It is not, after all, as if it is completely unexpected. As Lewis Hamilton pointed out after the race, tyres have been failing all season.
"We've had this trouble for a long time," said Hamilton, who suffered the first of six on-track tyre failures, all of them at more than 100mph, some of them at nearly twice that.
Perhaps the biggest concern is the fact that it should never have happened. It is not, after all, as if it is completely unexpected. As Lewis Hamilton pointed out after the race, tyres have been failing all season.
"We've had this trouble for a long time," said Hamilton, who suffered the first of six on-track tyre failures, all of them at more than 100mph, some of them at nearly twice that.
"It already happened in Malaysia (the second race). And then it happened in Bahrain (the fourth race) and then we did a test to prevent it and they didn't prevent it." He could have added that failures happened in Spain as well. All of the failures at Silverstone were worrying, but the one that demonstrated most clearly the risks involved was the one in which the left rear tyre on Sergio Perez's McLaren exploded on Hangar Straight - just as Ferrari's Fernando Alonso was shaping up to pass him.
The Spaniard had to take rapid avoiding action. And the concern
in these situations is not just that a car can hit another - and at more
than 160mph that would have been quite an accident - but that the
debris can hit the driver.
That debris, as Jenson Button put it, is "rubber that has metal in it". Which at those speeds could kill someone.
Alonso is as brave as they come, but even he admitted to being "so scared and so lucky because I missed the contact by one centimetre".
"Make no mistake about it," Red Bull team boss Christian Horner said. "Fernando Alonso is a very lucky boy today to be going home."
Are there reasons to believe a solution could be delayed, that F1 could muddle on until a long-term solution is found?
The next two races, at Germany's Nurburgring and the Hungaroring near Budapest, are at circuits nowhere near as demanding on tyres as is Silverstone.
Read More.. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1
That debris, as Jenson Button put it, is "rubber that has metal in it". Which at those speeds could kill someone.
Alonso is as brave as they come, but even he admitted to being "so scared and so lucky because I missed the contact by one centimetre".
"Make no mistake about it," Red Bull team boss Christian Horner said. "Fernando Alonso is a very lucky boy today to be going home."
Are there reasons to believe a solution could be delayed, that F1 could muddle on until a long-term solution is found?
The next two races, at Germany's Nurburgring and the Hungaroring near Budapest, are at circuits nowhere near as demanding on tyres as is Silverstone.
Read More.. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1
