Pirelli response pleases Vettel

ByAutoSport

Published 03/09/2015 at 15:01 GMT

Sebastian Vettel has hailed Formula 1 tyre supplier Pirelli for its "professionalism" just 11 days after slating the Italian manufacturer for its unacceptable performance in the Belgian Grand Prix.

Eurosport

Image credit: Eurosport

Vettel slammed Pirelli after suffering a high-speed blowout along the Kemmel Straight on the penultimate lap of the race, costing the Ferrari driver a likely third place.

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The four-times champion was even seen confronting Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery post-race, such was his anger.

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But following Pirelli's comprehensive examination of what unfolded, with Nico Rosberg also involved in a frightening incident in his Mercedes, Vettel has been left convinced by the company's diligence to try to rectify matters.

"We've been looking very closely into the issue we had," said Vettel.

"Pirelli has been supportive and very open in the discussions, which is the most important thing, and to make sure we learn from that.

"They have been very, very professional, have handled it with extreme care, very seriously, things are going the right way, and our target now is to improve the situation and make progress.

"And what's more important than any sort of press release is the feeling I got when I spoke to the engineers and to Pirelli."

For this weekend's Italian Grand Prix at Monza, Pirelli has raised tyre pressures by 5psi and altered camber limits.

Vettel is satisfied with what Pirelli has so far achieved, but also feels more can be done for the future.

"Obviously it is not acceptable to have a blow-up at the sort of speed I did out of the blue," he added.

"As I said, the investigations have been going on, and the stuff that has been analysed and talked about explains some of it, maybe not all of it yet. It is still ongoing.

"There are short-term changes, tyre pressures for example, but if that's the short-term reaction then that's one thing.

"Long term we need to understand properly what happened, but it's very clear everybody is trying to do their best."

Referring to the string of blowouts that overshadowed the 2013 British GP, Vettel said: "We had a situation a couple of years ago which wasn't acceptable.

"There was immediate change and we didn't have a problem afterwards, so you can see the professional approach does work and usually leads to the right results."

As for Rosberg, he is also happy with the approach taken by Pirelli.

"It has been handled with extreme precision and a lot of energy has gone into it, which I'm happy to see because it requires that," he said.

"I'm confident we'll be driving safely."

Formula 1