Sebastian Vettel is pretty “upset”, according to reports, as he had to stop just two laps from the flag because of a ruptured tyre. The tyre failure cost Vettel a third place finish at the Belgian Grand Prix held at the Spa last weekend.
Lewis Hamilton won the race with teammate Nico Rosberg in second and Lotus’ Romain Grosjean in third place.
Vettel’s Ferrari was fitted with Pirelli tyres. He raced with just one pit stop on lap 14 and drove 29 straight laps to lap 43.
“How many laps I was missing, not many? Things like that are not allowed to happen, full stop. If it happened 200 meters earlier, I’m not standing here now, I’m with 300 [km/h] stuck in Eau Rouge. I don’t know what else needs to happen.” says Vettel.
Vettel raised the issue to the FIA ((Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile) even before he had the tyre failure in light of a similar incident Nico Rosberg had last Friday.
Pirreli Motorsport Director Paul Hembery said that the damage was due to wear from running too many laps without a pit stop.
“He did 28 laps. It is more we thought the strategy was going to be based on two or three stops, which you saw the majority did. They felt clearly that they could make it work on a one-stop and the wear life was indicated at 40 laps – and race conditions can change that. Some factors involved in racing mean that is not precise data. Other teams were clearly taking a different direction.”
Hembery said he understands Vettel’s reaction and said that “It is perfectly easy to say at the end of the race with hindsight. If the race had been one lap less he would have been on the podium and said what a genius move! That is tough.”