Vettel: 'The team is not at fault'

After his tire exploded in the final moments of the Belgian Grand Prix last Sunday, after the Raidillon de l’Eau Rouge, Sebastian Vettel had criticized Pirelli, the sole manufacturer of the F1, upon arrival indicating that the incident was “unacceptable”.

The response from the Italian manufacturer was not long in coming. Initially, Paul Hembery, director of Pirelli Motorsport, declared that the tires mounted on the German driver's SF15-T were at the end of their life, following the strategic choice of the Team to make only one stop compared to two or three planned by the Milanese firm.

Pirelli also published a press release recalling that in 2013, a proposal aimed at limiting the maximum number of laps with a set of tires had not been accepted, specifying that with such a limit, 22 laps could have been completed on medium tires at Spa, a cumulative number exceeded by Vettel at the time of the incident .

The German driver indicated yesterday in a brief statement on his website that he defended the one-stop strategy operated by the Ferrari team. “Just to be clear: The team and I decided on this strategy together. I support the team and the team is behind me. It makes us a team. The strategy was never risky. The team is not at fault. »