Wow, I am no stranger to internet, so a civilized conversation with lots of well spoken viewpoints about race car tyres is to me, great! I am glad to have found a community where we can discuss dissenting opinions and not have it devolve into an argument. So, thank you to everyone for discussing this in an intelligent and civilized manner! There are a lot of well informed opinions in this thread, and it has been a treat to read them!
Now, it's time for my opinion! I do think Pirelli are doing as best they can, I really do. They're working with the FIA, 10 teams on an individual basis, and millions of fans, they have to satisfy all of them, so uh, good luck! They have a very difficult job. In the interest of actually taking a side, I will go ahead and place the larger chunk of the blame on the teams, and say I'm with Pirelli on this one. As has been said before, Vettel was on an awful long stint, but I'd have liked to see his tyres go off the cliff, rather than see one go pop. Could it have been averted with a different setup, without cutting into the kerb so much on the track, or with a shorter stint, maybe with a different tyre pressure? I'm going to bet you that, yes, Ferrari could have averted this, simply by better working within the confines of the tyre.
Now, while I have put myself on Pirelli's side, bloody hell mates if you say your tyre is rated for 40 laps it ought to last 40 laps! That is a kerfuffle, however Ferrari knew it was a long stint, and every driver likes to eat kerb to save lap times. Every team has to push the limits to compete. For me, Pirelli provides the product, and it's up to the teams to work within that. I'll never know what was said between Pirelli and Ferrari regarding their setup and how it will affect the tyres, or if anything was exchanged at all! However, from my big comfy blue chair and my perspective as a big-comfy-blue-chair commentator (which is to say, an ill-informed commentator), I still stand by my opinion that it's up to the teams to work with what they're given. If I knew what Pirelli had communicated to Ferrari, and vice versa, my opinion might change. However, the tyres are a static factor, and you have to work with that. From my perspective, the outside looking in, 9 other teams didn't have a problem during the race. Was anything different for Ferrari? I will likely never know! All I have is conjecture, which is hardly anything to go on!
I do feel that no matter what Pirelli do, they'll take some flak. In this instance, I think their entitled to some (if not a lot) of the flak, but not the majority.
I don't think booting Pirelli from F1 will solve anything, it would change things, however all I think that would do is give us another scapegoat, but for different reasons!