Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel warns tyres are contributing to “dangerous” out-lap incidents. Seb believes the problem shouldn’t be addressed through a rules change.

Scuderia Ferrari German driver Sebastian Vettel has warned the need to keep F1 tyres in the correct operating window is contributing to “dangerous” situations during qualifying.

At some circuits drivers are having to balance the need to prepare their tyres carefully while ensuring they stay close enough to the cars ahead to benefit from a slipstream. There have been several occasions this year when drivers have failed to start laps on time in Q3 or had laps spoiled because of this. Hamilton was involved in a near-miss with his own team mate yesterday during his preparation lap before his first run in Q3. Vettel complained that his Q3 session had been “a mess” after struggling to keep his tyres at the correct temperature while also running close enough to a rival to benefit from a slipstream.

However Sebastian Vettel believes the problem shouldn’t be addressed through a rules change. “What should change, what we should take from this, is that tyre-wise we shouldn’t be so much on the limit,” he said in the press conference immediately after qualifying. Obviously you’re fighting for a tow and so on but you’re also fighting to get into the optimum window, which years ago it wasn’t that critical, whereas now it is.” – Sebastian said, as reported by Racefans.net.

The severity of the problem has varied from track to track. Sebastian Vettel expects it will be a bigger problem at the Italian Grand Prix next week.

“You’re fighting for the best spot on the track which will hit the peak next week in Monza for finding the right tow because it does make a difference. It has also been part of those type of track, let’s say, but I feel if we had better tyres we could play with probably a bit more speed and so on.” – Scuderia Ferrari’s German driver concluded.