Slower F1 cars in 2019 would be “comical” - Vettel 

Sebastian Vettel believes it would be “comical” if Formula 1 produces slower cars next season having already recently changed the rules to make current-spec machinery faster. 

F1 will introduce simplified aerodynamic regulations for 2019 in a bid to help increase overtaking following repeated complaints, but the tweaks could come at a cost, with FIA single-seater technical chief Nikolas Tombazis predicting next year’s cars will be up to 1.5 seconds slower than this season. 

The sport's regulations were altered heading into 2017 as F1 introduced wider, faster and more aggressive cars to help improve the show, with numerous lap records being broken across the course of last season as drivers hailed the changes.

“I find it a bit comical,” Vettel said. “Why? In 2009 we went ‘oh let’s go, less aerodynamics and better racing’, and in fact it didn’t change too much. Then we said the cars were too slow, let’s go put more aerodynamic and make them wider, more spectacular. 

“The drivers' feedback was 'thank you very much, spectacular, that’s what we like'. You see us more exhausted after the races now they want to make us slower again. I don’t know. It’s a bit like, I don’t know, cruising to America then changing direction a hundred times.”

Vettel feels F1 and the FIA should have taken driver’s views into consideration before making regulation changes.

“I think you should ask us what we need to overtake," Vettel said. "We are drivers. Not to say that we know everything, we don’t know anything about engineering a car but we know how to drive the cars, the feel, how to drive the cars and then what it takes to overtake. But they don’t really ask.”

Lewis Hamilton, who set a new lap record (1m16.173s) around the newly-resurfaced Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya as he secured pole position for the Spanish Grand Prix, agreed with the German and doubts the tweaks will improve racing. 

“If you make us three seconds slower or a second and a half slower, it’s not going to make the racing any better and we just want to go faster, we want to improve technology, we want to push the boundaries and the limits,” he explained. 

“Is it the same people making the decisions every time, the same group, making the decision every time the rules go… not necessarily the best?. We should make the decisions.”