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ALAN BALDWIN
LONDON, England - Brazilian driver Felipe Massa says Pirelli's tyre choice for his home Formula 1 GP at Interlagos in November is "very dangerous".
The Italian tyremaker announced it would be taking its two hardest compounds to Interlagos -- hard and medium – because of the high energy demands of the anti-clockwise Sao Paulo circuit.
"Dangerous, very dangerous," Massa told reporters when asked his opinion during the weekend of the Oct 12 Russian F1 GP in Sochi on the Black Sea coast.
"I have no idea why they chose
medium and hard and it's completely unacceptable."
TRACK RESURFACED
F1’s only current Brazilian driver said the conditions at the circuit could be wet and cold and hard rubber mght not provide enough grip if drivers needed to take a gamble on dry tyres.
Massa, whose concerns about safety have been heightened by the horrific crash suffered by friend and fellow driver Jules Bianchi in Japan this month, also said the track had been resurfaced, which might cause more problems.
"I already spoke to most of the drivers, I spoke to the International Automobile Federation, I spoke to everybody, so more than what I did I think is difficult," Massa added. "We wait and see."
Pirelli's motorsport head Paul Hembery was puzzled by Massa's comments, pointing out the hard tyre had been raced previously at Interlagos, usually the penultimate race of the season.
"It's one of the more aggressive circuits we have on the calendar and has the risk of creating tyre blisters. We know that the soft tyre under extreme loads has the potential to blister," he said.
Hembery agreed, however, that the new asphalt could be a factor and said the company would double-check that before the next meeting of the sport's tyre working group.
"If there's unanimous agreement, we can reconsider," he added, although any change would be based solely on the technical data.
