Pirelli says F1 teams ignored request for tyre limits in 2013

Pirelli believes Sebastian Vettel's tyre blowout in the Belgian Grand Prix could have been avoided if Formula 1 had accepted a request two years ago to limit tyre usage

Vettel was left fuming following the race at Spa-Francorchamps as his bid for third place was wrecked by a dramatic right-rear tyre explosion on his Ferrari along the Kemmel Straight on the penultimate lap.

The four-time champion escaped unharmed, but suggested the incident could have led to more serious consequences if it had occurred 200 metres earlier climbing through Eau Rouge.

Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery later suggested he was "surprised" at Ferrari's strategy of running a one-stop plan, with Vettel switching from soft to medium-compound rubber on lap 14 of 43.

Although the team was given an indication wear life would be 40 laps, Hembery claimed that was no guarantee as the circumstances of a race play a significant part.

Pirelli has now issued a statement arguing if it had been listened to in 2013 then its brush with the headlines would not have happened.

The statement read: "Regarding what happened at the Belgian Grand Prix, Pirelli underlines that: In November 2013, Pirelli requested there should be rules to govern the maximum number of laps that can be driven on the same set of tyres, among other parameters to do with correct tyre usage.

"This request was not accepted.

"The proposal put forward a maximum distance equivalent to 50 per cent of the grand prix distance for the prime tyre and 30 per cent for the option.

"These conditions, if applied at Spa, would have limited the maximum number of laps on the medium compound to 22."

It was a point noted by Hembery post-race in the paddock when asked as to whether a tyre should only be allowed to run for a maximum number of laps.

Hembery said: "We discussed that a few years ago when obviously we were a little more aggressive and people were pushing out stints to try and reduce the number of stops.

"It's very hard to enforce because you take away maybe the impact of the engineering aspect to the car where somebody might be able to engineer the car to a point where they can reduce the number of pitstops, and at that time it wasn't feasible to actually introduce it.

"Now, maybe we can go back to the advice levels, and say no more than 'x' amount of laps on a certain tyre."