Vettel says Ferrari messed up with nonsensical strategy

By Alan Baldwin

SILVERSTONE, England (Reuters) - Sebastian Vettel accused Ferrari of messing up with a strategy that made no sense on Sunday, although the unhappy German did not help his own race by spinning at the first corner and dropping to last.

In a sign that the four-times world champion's relations with the team are wearing thin, following their decision not to keep him on beyond this season, Vettel questioned Ferrari's moves after finishing 12th in the 70th Anniversary race.

After rejoining in traffic from his first pitstop, Vettel informed his team over the radio that "you know that you messed up."

"We spoke this morning and said there was no point pitting knowing that we will run into traffic -- and that's exactly what we did," he told reporters later.

"We went also onto a hard tyre, which we then only had on for 10 laps, probably not even that, so it didn't make any sense.

"I mean why would you put the hard for 10 laps and put the medium for 20 laps? So I was running out of tyres towards the end, so we spoke about exactly that."

Vettel had said earlier in the weekend that he had run out of answers to explain why he was having such a hard time with the car.

The German, who won all his titles with Red Bull between 2010-13, has been eclipsed by young Monegasque team mate Charles Leclerc who finished fourth on Sunday by making a one-stop strategy work.

Ferrari's review of the race said, perhaps pointedly, that Leclerc's result was the result of "strategy and bravura".

"Sebastian's position was the result of his first lap incident," said team boss Mattia Binotto.

Vettel is 13th in the standings after five races, with 10 points to Leclerc's 45. His best finish this year was sixth in Hungary, and he has been 10th twice.

(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Ian Chadband)