Haslam and Crutchlow slam “dangerous” tyres
Added on Monday, July 12th, 2010 by Carole Nash Editor
Haslam and Crutchlow slam “dangerous” tyres
British riders Leon Haslam and Cal Crutchlow have slammed WSB tyre supplier Pirelli, claiming that he will never use the manufacturer’s new specification tyre again.
Haslam, who lost further ground to Max Biaggi in the championship race in Brno on Sunday, could only manage an eighth and tenth place finish and admitted that he nearly followed the lead of Cal Crutchlow in race two, who pulled into the pits to change tyre because he thought he was going to crash.
And Haslam claimed that the problems were not unique to Brno, with the Suzuki Alstare man also having trouble in Misano.
“It’s hard to say how disappointed and frustrated I am,” claimed Haslam after the race. “If I thought that the problems were my fault, I’d put my hand up straightaway. We first experienced grip problems with the new tyres in Misano. Whatever we tried just didn’t seem to work. We used the new tyres in race one there and I had a poor result, so we changed to the older tyres for race two, went back to our base set-up and I finished second,” said Haslam.
“We worked with the new tyres all weekend and we have struggled all weekend. We did manage to improve the bike a bit for today, but the engine is pushing in almost everywhere and the bike is not easy to ride. The new tyres have got more grip, but getting the bike to work with them is another thing. There are a few people who have got them to work, but the majority of us are struggling.
“The tyre in race two didn’t work at all and I almost couldn’t finish the race – it was that bad! I felt that I was going to be highsided all the time and I don’t think I’ve been passed by that many people all year! Cal (Crutchlow) obviously had a similar tyre to mine and he felt it was bad enough to pit and change it for another one. Although his second tyre was the same, it behaved completely differently and he was able to lap over a second lap quicker straightaway.
“I’m trying to think what positives we can take from this weekend and my comment is… none. The only thing I do know is that we will not be using these new tyres again. We’ll go back to the older tyres, a base set-up we know and I am convinced that I’ll be able to lap a lot faster and be challenging for the podium again.”
Yamaha rider Crutchlow echoed Haslam’s concerns, claiming that he just did not trust the tyres in Sunday’s second race.
“I’m disappointed to be honest, I knew we had the pace this weekend to win. The first race didn’t go too much to plan, we had a bit of a problem with rear grip so we made a change for the second race which I thought was going to be really good,” he claimed.
“I did 12 laps on the rear tyre and to be honest I was just about to crash so I had to pull into change it. The tyre looked brand new after 12 laps where it should have looked worn. We did the last eight laps on a brand new tyre, I did the fastest lap of the race and the tyre looked perfect. I’m disappointed I couldn’t take it to the front guys but that’s racing, we’ll go to Silverstone now and make up for it.”
