Furious after his flat tire, Sebastian Vettel doesn’t mince his words against Pirelli
Sebastian Vettel will certainly take a long time to digest his spectacular blowout at the Raidillon de l'Eau Rouge at the end of the race. He directly blames Pirelli and urges the manufacturer to deeply question themselves.

Nothing seemed to go right for Sebastian Vettel this weekend at Spa-Francorchamps! After lackluster Free Practice sessions and more than average Qualifications (9th place in Q3, as a reminder on Saturday afternoon), the German driver ended his weekend in the same vein: with an unfortunate puncture, no less in the penultimate lap, just as he was holding onto a new podium.
Once out of the car, anger could be seen on his face: it is directly aimed at Pirelli, whose tire performance is simply unacceptable.
To our colleagues at the BBC, he stated that things like this (editor’s note: his flat tire) simply cannot happen. If my flat tire had happened 200 meters earlier, I would not be here talking to you now, I would still be stuck in the Eau Rouge corner! I don’t know what else needs to happen for them to react!
His race strategy involved only one tire change, on lap 14. Equipped with medium tires, Vettel was confident he could secure another podium finish despite the threat from Grosjean.
« What happened overwhelms me both from the perspective of the accident and the result. We deserved to finish on the podium. Imagine if it had happened to me a little earlier in Eau Rouge. Tires are a recurring theme, yet very few people make decisions; this is unacceptable. »
The four-time World Champion draws a parallel with Nico Rosberg and his Friday afternoon puncture at Blanchimont. After investigation, Pirelli ruled that an external element affected the tire structure leading to the puncture.
But Nico Rosberg did not receive the Italian manufacturer’s assessment favorably.
Vettel shares his compatriot’s doubt: « What is Pirelli’s response? It’s always the same: “Yes, a piece of debris cut the tire, there’s a problem with the car’s aerodynamics, the driver made a mistake…” Nico is telling the truth when he says he didn’t leave the track before the tire burst (note: on Friday afternoon during Free Practice 2), so why would he lie? It’s the same with me, I didn’t go off the track when my tire exploded. »
We remember that the last controversy with Pirelli had made headlines during the summer of 2013, particularly at Silverstone where a series of blowouts had worried all the teams and drivers.
« It is probably not as serious as at Silverstone at the time, but all of this remains unacceptable. »
Finally, the cherry on top, Sebastian Vettel almost got penalized for not showing up for the weigh-in. Ultimately, the incident is closed, and the Scuderia driver did show up as required by the sporting regulations.
The fact remains that Pirelli is likely to be at the center of criticism fueling F1 news in the coming days.