2
Ferrari and Pirelli are investigating the race-ending tyre explosion that stopped Sebastian Vettel in his tracks on Sunday. The German driver was leading the Austrian grand prix when a rear tyre exploded and ended his race at the Red Bull Ring.
Team boss Maurizio Arrivabene denied suggestions Ferrari pushed the boundaries by running the tyres for too long on Vettel's car. "No," he said. "We wanted to go even longer and had plenty of feedback from Seb that we were on the safe side. There were no signs on the telemetry, nothing from Sebastian that there was something wrong. Then the tyre broke," added the Italian.
Coming at the end of a weekend in which several cars' suspensions were destroyed over harsh new kerbs at the Red Bull Ring, Arrivabene said that could not be ruled out as the cause. "It's too early to say but it's possible," he said.
"It's just strange that we are apparently the only ones with such a problem. We are working closely with Pirelli on the analysis. When I started work here (at Ferrari), I said I would always tell the truth, and the truth is I don't know what happened."
The sister car of Kimi Raikkonen went on to finish third in Austria, but Arrivabene would not be drawn on what he thinks Vettel might have achieved. "Vettel was leading and according to our calculations, he would have finished the race near the front. How far forward, we will never know," he said.
With the two Mercedes drivers clashing yet again, meanwhile, what Arrivabene would say is that similar trouble between Vettel and Raikkonen is much less likely. "I leave this issue to Toto (Wolff)," said Arrivabene. "I am happy with Kimi and Seb. I cannot imagine a situation like that at Mercedes with our own two drivers." (GMM)
Grand Prix of BelgiumLocal time
Grand Prix of BelgiumLocal time
Bahrain International Circuit - Winter testing
M. Verstappen
C. Sainz jr
C. Leclerc
Bahrain
Bahrain
Bahrain International Circuit
Bahrain
Bahrain International Circuit
Saudi Arabia
Jeddah Street Circuit
Australia
Albert Park
Japan
Circuit Suzuka
United States of America
Miami International Autodrome
Monaco
Monte Carlo
Canada
Gilles Villeneuve
Spain
Circuit de Catalunya
Austria
Red Bull Ring
United Kingdom
Silverstone
Hungary
Hungaroring
Belgium
Spa-Francorchamps
Netherlands
Circuit Zandvoort
Italy
Monza
Azerbaijan
Baku City Circuit
Singapore
Marina Bay Street Circuit
United States of America
Circuit of the Americas
Mexico
Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez
Brazil
Interlagos
United States of America
Las Vegas Street Circuit
United Arab Emirates
Yas Marina Circuit
280,757 comments on Aston Martin
57 members have this team as their favourite
Tweets about Sebastian Vettel 37,344 comments on Pirelli 2 members have this team as their favourite Tweets about Pirelli
Replies (2)
Login to replycalle.itw
Posts: 8,527
It must be quite awkward for Pirelli, to have had these problems in how many years now? Three?
Risk
Posts: 4
What an interesting contrast in Vettel's in-race and post race comments.
Contrast his opinions on Oesterreich this year with Spa Francorchamps last year and Vettel seems to be a different driver altogether. Perhaps the result of a marketing deal?
Pirelli is really taking it on the chin with all these failures. One would think they'd have learned by now and run endurance tests with every tire compound down to the canvas for multiple laps at 300kph, at least.