This afternoon’s Belgian Grand Prix was filled with yet more tyre woes for Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel.
A tyre blowout on the penultimate lap cost Vettel a podium position and much-needed points in the World Championship battle.
A furious Vettel made his frustrations with the global tyre company very clear saying it was a wholly unacceptable performance from the tyre giant, citing that he could have been badly injured.
“It was at the end of wear-life,” Hembery told Motorsport.com. “Any tyre in the world, when it gets to the end of its wear-life, you’re going to have a problem.
“[He did] 28 laps, it was more we thought the strategy would be based on two or three stops, as the majority did, but they clearly felt they could make it work on the one stop. They obviously felt that was feasible.
Hembery defended Pirelli saying any tyre has a wear life and when you are at the end of this there will be problems. Vettel had raced a further 28 laps after his one and only pit stop when the right rear tyre gave way.
“Wear-life was indicated at around 40 laps, but it’s an indication and race conditions can change that and some factors involved in racing mean that sometimes it’s not a precise datum. Other teams were taking a different direction.”.
Hembery concluded interviews advising that unlike Rosberg’s tyre failure during this weekend’s free practice that Vettel’s race tyre failure was due to tyre wear only, a gamble Ferrari chose to make but that in the end did not pay off.
