Four drivers suffered almost identical rear-left tyre failures in a chaotic British Grand Prix on Sunday, with Mercedes' Nico Rosberg eventually winning it. As a result, the drivers have threatened to boycott next weekend's German Grand Prix unless the unexpected tyre explosions are rectified.
"I am 100 percent sure that every driver is complaining about it today," said Ferrari driver Felipe Massa. "I don't want to say that [we will boycott] because I don't want to create loads of problems but this is something that for our safety we can do."
Formula One's only tyre suppliers Pirelli have been summoned to a meeting of the Sporting Working Group scheduled for Wednesday.
Lewis Hamilton was leading the race when his tyre burst at 180mph incident on lap eight. He too sounded his concern about safety. "Safety is the biggest issue," Hamilton said. "It's just unacceptable. We had that tyre test to develop and improve the tyres to stop that from happening and after that tyre test, they didn't do anything.
"Someone could've crashed. I was thinking behind the safety car that it's only when someone gets hurt that something will be done about it," the Mercedes driver added.
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said it was time to take corrective measures. "I don't think they should cancel Germany," he said. "The most logical thing would be to go back to the tyres they have had previously which did not have these failures. The problem with that is that teams are seen to be chasing a competitive advantage but we were leading the race on these tyres today and we have won races on these tyres."
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