Vettel backtracks on Pirelli claims

Sebastian Vettel has backtracked on his comments after the Belgian Grand Prix on the tyre which exploded at the very end of the race which lost him a podium position.

The German was openly critical immediately after the race, although at the time had little evidence on how or why the tyre exploded despite being the only driver who attempted a one stop strategy, deviating from the two stop suggested by Pirelli.

Talking in the drivers press conference on Thursday, Vettel had a more sympathetic stance against Pirelli, “Well, first of all I think there was a lot of stuff explained or written that I think was not correct, the way it was expressed.

“I think it was very clear what I said. I think the most important point is that obviously we have been looking into the issue we had very clearly and Pirelli has been supportive and very open in the discussions, so I think that’s the most important thing and we need to make sure that we learn from that.

“Other than that we are in Monza now and, as I said, there is plenty of other stuff to look forward to.”

“I think in all honestly I had a bit more insight because I was obviously one of the two cars that had a failure during the weekend in Belgium – a bit more insight on what was going on after the race in terms of the analysis and so on, than probably Felipe and Daniel.

“I’m not sure about Nico. But yeah, from what I mentioned also before, it has been very professional, the way it was handled. It was taken very seriously. And obviously our target is to improve the situation. I think it’s natural that you always try to improve your product.

“I think if you look at the cars, if you talk about the cars today, the cars are quick and so on, and the cars are safe. They’re surely safer than they have been 30 years ago but there is still room for making them safer: we still have accidents and so on and still some things can happen.

“It’s a one-way street: you want to make progress and keep making progress. So I think that’s more important than any sort of press release, the feeling that I got when I spoke to the engineers and spoke to Pirelli.”

“I think it is not acceptable to have a blow-out at that sort of speed, out of the blue and I think that’s what I said also after the race, so there’s nothing really to add.”

Pirelli are looking to increase tyre pressures at Monza to avoid the number of cuts experienced at Spa ten days ago.

*Image ©Mark Haggan*

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