FIA race director Charlie Whiting came close to stopping the British Grand Prix as exploding tyres threatened the safety of the drivers.
Whiting delivered his verdict following a chaotic race at Silverstone won by Nico Rosberg of Mercedes where the lives of the drivers were on the line.
With Pirelli already in the firing line this season, their reputation now is again in tatters, similar to the bits of rubber that were left strewn across the Northamptonshire circuit as four incidents made for one of the most embarrassing days in Formula One’s history.
Lewis Hamilton, Felipe Massa, Jean-Eric Vergne and Sergio Perez were at the mercy of Pirelli’s tyres as they all suffered failures to the left-rears.
By lap 15, Hamilton, Massa and Vergne had suffered blowouts, with the tyre completely deflating, as opposed to issues earlier in the season when they delaminated, where the rubber stripped away but the belt remained intact.
When Perez, who had already suffered a failure in practice on Saturday, saw his race destroyed by another on lap 46, it crossed Whiting’s mind to bring out the red flags.
“It was quite close to being red flagged. It did occur to me to do that,” said Whiting.
When asked if one more tyre failure could have led to the race being halted, Whiting said: “I don’t want to put figures on it, but it was close. I don’t think we’ve seen anything like this (in F1 history). I can’t remember anything. To have four total catastrophic failures, I believe, is a first.”
Unsurprisingly, the likes of Hamilton, Perez and Massa were angered by what unfolded, with the former’s hopes of victory wrecked by his failure on lap eight that saw him drop to last from the lead before rescuing his race with fourth behind race winner and team-mate Nico Rosberg.
“What happened is just unacceptable,” said Mercedes star Hamilton, who last month played his part in a controversial tyre test that was supposed to help Pirelli solve their problems.
“We had that test to develop and improve the tyres to stop that from happening, and after that tyre test they didn’t do anything.
“Safety is the biggest issue. Someone could’ve crashed. Behind the safety car I was thinking it was only when someone gets hurt that something will be done about it.”
At the request of FIA president Jean Todt, Pirelli are scheduled to take part in a meeting of the Sporting Working Committee on Wednesday to discuss a number of issues.
Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery conceded the Italian manufacturing company is “taking the situation seriously”.
To the race itself and Rosberg won by 0.7secs over Red Bull’s Mark Webber, who conjured a fine charge over the closing stages to take second just days after announcing he would be quitting the sport at the end of the season.
Keeping up his title challenge and closing the gap to 21 points to Vettel, Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso finished third, narrowly ahead of Hamilton, who missed out on a place on the podium by 0.6secs. Lotus’ Kimi Raikkonen was fifth ahead of Massa.
Paul Di Resta finished ninth in his Force India, having started at the back of the grid after receiving a penalty for being underweight, while Jenson Button could only manage 13th for McLaren.