A furious Sebastian Vettel said Pirelli has given "bulls***" explanations for tyre failures at Spa after his blowout on the penultimate lap of the Belgian Grand Prix.
Vettel was holding off the charging Romain Grosjean for third when his right rear burst at the start of the Kemmel Straight, the next part of the track after the flat-out Eau Rouge section. The Ferrari driver had opted for an optimistic one-stop strategy to earn the final spot on the podium and his pace did not suggest he was struggling significantly before the tyre exploded.
It comes two days after Nico Rosberg suffered a huge tyre blowout, again on the right rear, in FP2, with damage appearing to initially get picked up at the same part of the circuit.
Asked if he had been too greedy to expect the tyres to last so long, Vettel replied: "No. Well, how many laps was I missing? Not many. Things like that are not allowed to happen - full stop. If it happens 200 metres earlier I'm not standing here now, I'm with 300 [kph] stuck in Eau Rouge, so I don't know what else needs to happen."
Though Vettel raised his concerns about tyres to FIA race director at a drivers' meeting on Friday, he does not think the matter was taken as seriously as he should have been.
"I tell you what is upsetting. One thing is the result, this is racing and for sure we deserved to finish on the podium. But if this happened earlier, I don't.... it's the sort of theme that keeps going around and nobody is mentioning it, but it's unacceptable."
Asked if he thought his concerns were taken seriously, Vettel said: "Well, I think it was - but what's the answer? Same as every time, 'yeah there was a cut, debris, bodywork, the driver went wide' - bulls****! If Nico tells us that he didn't go off the track then he didn't go off the track, same with me, I didn't go out of the track, just out of the blue it explodes and as I said, if this happens earlier - f***!"
Vettel thinks serious discussions need to be had ahead of the next race at Monza.
"I think we need to speak to each other. It's probably not as bad as it was in Silverstone a few years ago but it's not acceptable."
Vettel was so upset after the race he did not visit the weighing scales when asked to do so by the FIA's technical delegate. The stewards are investigating it as breach of Article 36.1b of the regulations.
Ferrari also cancelled the German's remaining media sessions following his appearance in the TV pen.