Pirelli hits back at tyre criticism

24 August 2015 11:17

Pirelli has claimed its proposal to restrict the number of laps a tyre could do, one which may have prevented Sebastian Vettel's blowout on Sunday, was dismissed by Formula One's teams a couple of years ago.

On the penultimate lap of a Belgian Grand Prix, in which Lewis Hamilton cruised to his sixth victory of the campaign, Vettel suffered a costly tyre failure.

After the four-time world champion qualified only ninth, Ferrari were attempting an aggressive strategy in a bid to get their man on the podium - but it failed in the most dramatic of circumstances.

Vettel, who finished outside of the points, vented his anger at Pirelli, by claiming he could have been killed had the failure occurred in the high-speed Eau Rouge section of the Spa-Francorchamps track.

Vettel said: "Things like that are not allowed to happen, full stop. If it happens 200 metres earlier, I am not standing here now - it is unacceptable."

But Pirelli, whose chief Paul Hembery, was mobbed in the paddock after Sunday's race, claimed that his company's request to limit the number of laps driven by a driver on the same set of tyres was ruled out by the sport's teams two years ago.

Pirelli has argued that had its idea been met with approval, Vettel's tyre failure could have been prevented.

"In November 2013, Pirelli requested that there should be rules to govern the maximum number of laps that can be driven on the same set of tyres - among other parameters to do with correct tyre usage," Pirelli said in a statement.

"This request was not accepted. The proposal put forward a maximum distance equivalent to 50 per cent of the grand prix distance for the prime tyre and 30 per cent for the option.

"These conditions, if applied today at Spa, would have limited the maximum number of laps on the medium compound to 22."

Vettel, the only driver to attempt a one-stop strategy, was on his 28th lap on the medium compound when the failure occurred.

Pirelli was already under the spotlight in Belgium after Nico Rosberg suffered a similar failure in practice.

The German's tyre exploded as he approached Blanchimont at close to 200mph. And Rosberg, who finished second to fall 28 points adrift of Hamilton in the championship, backed Vettel by calling on Pirelli to make changes for the Italian Grand Prix.

Speaking on his post-race blog, Rosberg said: "Vettel blowing up his tyre is really not acceptable. For either of us, for me on Friday, or for him today, had it happened a couple of metres earlier or later we would have huge shunts, the biggest shunts ever, because this track is so fast.

"The next track is Monza, the fastest track of the year, so they have to think of something to try and improve that situation - for example activating all the rear-view cameras so the team are watching, and they can see before a tyre explodes and give us warning."

Hembery said he would welcome the introduction of live cameras

"You could make bullet proof tyres but you'd have major problem on F1 cars," he said. "What was useful for us was having video footage - maybe live feeds, which some teams have now of their different parts of the cars may have been useful.

"It's something you could have picked up maybe 4 kilometres (2.5 miles) before the incident."

Source: PA