Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel says he is not sure what caused his race-ending tyre failure at Sunday's Austrian Grand Prix.
Vettel was leading the race when his tyre let go as he crossed the line to begin lap 27, and the failure cause him to lose control of his car and hit the pit wall. However, he does not believe the long first stint was the cause of the blowout.
"It’s completely a question mark on why the tyre had the failure" said the German.
“When the rear right tire failed, I didn’t feel anything, or rather, I felt it when it was too late and it exploded out of the blue. There were no signs [of failure] before the crash, everything was normal. The pace was the same as the lap before, the tyres felt fine, the lap times were fine."
"Obviously the idea was to go on as long as possible with that set of tyres, but I don’t think it was an aggressive strategy, as lots of people went longer than us on the same tires."
Vettel now sits 57 points behind Championship leader Nico Rosberg, and while he does not rule himself out of the fight yet, is all-too aware of the impact this DNF could have later in the year.
"There are still a lot of races left, but surely not finishing the race doesn’t help”.
Vettel suffered a similar failure last year at the Belgian Grand Prix just after he crested the fearsome Eau Rouge corner, and team Principal Maurizio Arrivabene says investigations with Pirelli are well underway.
"We are talking with Pirelli to understand the reason, as other teams were running without any problem, which is really strange.
"Without his tyre failure, Seb would have finished very high on the podium. I don't know where – but very high."
