Vettel lashes out at Pirelli after blow out
Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel lashed out at Pirelli after his Belgian Grand Prix was ruined by a tyre blow out at Spa-Francorchamps.
Sebastian Vettel hit out at tyre manufacturers Pirelli after his Ferrari suffered a late blow out to end his hopes at the Belgian Grand Prix.
The four-time world champion was pushing for a podium pace at Spa-Francorchamps on Sunday when his race came to an abrupt end on the penultimate lap.
Vettel – who had done 27 laps on his last set of tyres – roared through Eau Rouge, but moments later lost his right rear and fell from third to 12th, leaving the German angry such a situation was able to happen.
"Things like that are not allowed - if that happens 200 metres earlier, I am not standing here right now," he told BBC Sport.
"This sort of thing keeps going around but it's not acceptable.
"What's the answer? Cut, debris, driver running wide... if Nico [Rosberg, who had a similar problem during practice on Friday] says he didn't go off the track, he didn't.
"I didn't go off the track but, out of the blue, the tyre explodes. It's not acceptable."
Rosberg echoed the thoughts of his compatriot, the Mercedes driver – who claimed second behind Lewis Hamilton – calling for more to be done to help improve driver safety.
He added: "It was pretty scary again. A couple of metres earlier he [Vettel] has a big off. He was lucky just like I was, he didn't hit anything but it needs to be sorted out.
"Somehow we need to make it safer, somehow we need to see the tyre failing earlier. If they are not able to completely solve the problem in the next couple of weeks - Monza is high speed again - we need to have something in place for that."