OCTOBER 7, 2013

Perez says F1 ignoring Pirelli danger

Sergio Perez has added yet another dissenting voice to the debate about F1's controversial tyre supplier.

Sergio Perez has added yet another dissenting voice to the debate about F1's controversial tyre supplier.

Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber in Korea slammed Pirelli for providing poor quality, heavily degrading products, but it was McLaren's Perez who actually suffered a scary accident in the race when his tyre exploded.

"Pirelli will put the puncture of Perez down to a lock-up but the reason the drivers are locking up is because there's no tread left," Webber had said.

As predicted, Pirelli chief Paul Hembery did blame the Perez incident on a bad lock-up, but he said Webber was wrong to point the finger.

"There are two issues here that Mark is conflating," he said.

"It (Perez's failure) was nothing to do with the delaminations earlier in the season," Hembery told the Telegraph.

"The other issue about degradation is the same old story. We are only doing what we were asked to do, which is to create two to three stops per race."

Perez, however, was making the link between Pirelli and compromised safety.

"At the end of the day nothing happened," the Mexican is quoted by the AAP news agency, referring to injuries. "But one day something will happen.

"Nothing happened so after today nobody will comment on the situation, but one day something will happen so we will regret it," said Perez.

(GMM)