Speaking to French television station Canal+, Todt said: “I had a meeting
with officials from Pirelli who will obviously investigate all the incidents
that occurred in recent days.
“They will come up with proposals for the important meeting with all the
teams on Wednesday. This (problem) will be part of the priority agenda.
“From the moment there are safety issues we have to make the right
decision, and not just respond emotionally.
“We must analyse things and let the experts come together to meet after
that. It will allow us to make a final decision.”
Given the lives of the drivers are on the line, Hamilton has called on Pirelli
to react as he said: “What happened is just unacceptable.
“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.”
Hamilton was the first of the quartet to suffer, losing his lead on lap eight
and with it the chance to win his home race, although he produced a recovery
drive to claim fourth behind Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg.
Within seven laps Massa and Vergne were also affected, with a piece of tyre
from the latter’s Toro Rosso flying into the cockpit of Kimi Raikkonen
following closely behind in his Lotus.
On lap 46, and for the second time over the weekend given he lost his
left-rear in final practice, Perez was sent out of the race, with more
flying rubber almost striking Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso on the helmet.
McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh has suggested one idea is to return to
last year’s tyres which proved reliable.
Otherwise he fears a repeat of what happened in the 2005 United States Grand
Prix when all the Michelin runners pulled out after the warm-up lap due to
safety concerns.
“If they (Pirelli) have sufficient quantities of the 2012 tyres then I
have no doubt we go ahead with that as I sense that is a very safe thing to
do,” added Whitmarsh.
“In fairness to Pirelli I don’t know how they can respond in such short
order, but we have to do what we can to support them.
“We don’t want an Indianapolis, but cancelling a race is a big step.
“All I would ask is they do everything they can to give us the most
durable tyres they can for next weekend.”
(Edited by Nick Pearce)