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Vettel disagrees with Brawn over 2017 rule change criticism

Published on 10 Nov 2019 13:15
5
By: Harry Mattocks

Sebastian Vettel has hit back at comments made by Ross Brawn last week regarding the rule change that introduced faster, higher downforce cars in 2017.

Brawn's arguement was that Formula 1 made a mistake moving to the current set of regulations, as although giving the drivers more downforce seemed like a good idea at first it came back to bite them.

"The huge increase in downforce was 'let's make the cars go faster, let's make F1 better;' But what we have actually done is made it worse because the cars can't race each other," said Brawn.

"It's an example of an unthought-through programme. So, the cars are very quick now, but they're not raceable."

When asked about this subject, Vettel disagreed with the Englishman: "I think the cars are a lot more spectacular since 2017. Now we know what the cars can do, it was quite slow before that.

"Obviously we had very little drag, and it was great in a straight line, but that's not the exciting bit for us.

"And it felt a bit slower than some years earlier. So I don't think that was the wrong direction."

Vettel went on to say that increasing the weight of the cars was the wrong direction to go in.

"The wrong direction from my point of view was that the cars are so heavy, which is obviously related to in a way some of the safety measures, but I think everybody accepts that, and the power unit.

"I think that really is the biggest difference if you really make a big compare between now and where F1 has been 10 or 20 years ago, or even further."

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Replies (5)

calle.itw

Posts: 8,527
I agree with Vettel. Looking at things now, I feel this was the right direction, although the cars could be a bit slower. Yes, we've had less overtakes at the expense of this, but the overtakes we get are of greater quality, and I feel the racing as a whole was improved. Things could be improved, of course, I feel the cars might actually benefit from being a bit slower, which could easily be fixed with either more drag or lower fuel flow or something, and maybe the cars could be a bit slimmer, but that's just details. As a whole, I feel F1 has had a decent peak as of late, 2018 and the mid of 2019 has been fantastic.
- + 0
- Nov 10 2019 - 14:02
- Ram Samartha
  
  Posts: 1,172
  I largely agree to but you can see the cars getting washed out from the wake of the cars in front of them. I don't think a second or two slower will hurt the show but closer racing will definitely help it.
  + 0
  
  Nov 11 2019 - 04:59
- Dert38
  
  Posts: 377
  What you found interesting in 2018 ant start of 2019 if not secret? vettel was competitive because of preference ? even massa was competitive in those conditions. And we have saw what bottas done with Felipe in near to parity conditions.
  + 0
  
  Nov 11 2019 - 18:22
- calle.itw
  
  Posts: 8,527
  Among other things, I liked the packed, actionfilled midfield, the chaotic natures of the races, the removal of the sharkfins, the lower emphasis on having the best engine, new and exciting rookies fighting the veterans.
  + 0
  
  Nov 11 2019 - 20:13
Dert38

Posts: 377
2017 were dumb rules no doubt. Most boring year in 20xx. Even vettel domination was more interesting... at least her engines exploded. 2017 Iq 50 rules
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- Nov 11 2019 - 18:19