Goodyear was the unlucky protagonist of the second round of the WTCR calendar. The punctures, delaminations and continuous vibrations of the tires caused that the two races of the contest at the Nürburgring Nordschleife will end up being canceled for security reasons. The tire firm itself issued a statement in which it showed signs of not being able to guarantee the safety of the participants, without finding conclusive reasons for these problems in their tires. The manufacturer has promised to make a more complete and detailed technical analysis of its products to understand their behavior.
Goodyear’s statement read: “Safety is our first consideration and we understand the importance of giving drivers the confidence they need to perform on a circuit with specific requirements like the Nürburgring Nordschleife. We commit to carry out a complete technical analysis of all our productsas well as tire usage based on the race conditions seen for future WTCR events this season. Tires from multiple production batches were used and there were no differences in performance or durability between batches».
“Following the tire conditions experienced during the various sessions of the event, we have carried out a preliminary traceability review of the production batches that have been used. Analysis to date, along with inspection of the returned tires themselves, has failed to identify a specific manufacturing problem.. Further analysis is needed, in collaboration with the teams, before a concrete specification can be recommended in the current WTCR race format. We will collect all tires for further analysis» concluded the letter sent by the firm.
Contrast this statement with the first issued by those responsible for Goodyear in which he pointed directly to the ‘client-teams’ of Lynk & Co and Honda, as these were the only structures that had suffered repeated punctures and delamination during the free practice sessions and qualifying. Nevertheless, Rob Huff’s statements in which he directly pointed to the vibrations of the tires of his CUPRA León Competición as the cause of his accident in the last minutes of qualifying disassembled the position of the Ohio tire brand.
Although the damage to the tires of the WTCR was notable and very visible, it is curious that the same tire specification did not give major problems between the TCR vehicles that competed in the 24 Hours of Nürburgring. In fact, Mikel Azconadriver present on the WTCR grid and in the endurance race, achieved victory at the 24 Hours of Nürburgring in the TCR category with the same type of cover as footwear of your Hyundai Elantra N TCRa unit he shared with Marc Basseng and Manuel Lauck.
Photos: FIA WTCR