Sebastian Vettel says he is not in favour of Formula 1’s standing restarts regulation, describing them as a “lottery” due to the difference in grip level.
Formula 1 used a standing restart after the race suspension at Monza, where Vettel did not take part due to his early brake failure, and used the system twice at Mugello in the wake of multiple accidents.
The four-time World Champion has questioned fairness of the system, as discarded rubber from the Pirelli tyres that gets laid down on the dirty side of the track theoretically sees those starting on the racing line gain an advantage.
“I don’t remember when I’ve done so many starts in one day, normally I have one,” Vettel said after Sunday’s Tuscan Grand Prix.
“I have to say, I’m not a big fan of that rule, because if you’re on the right side of the track it’s a huge advantage.
“If you’re on the dirty side of the track, we saw that at Monza already, halfway through the race there’s a lot of marbles off the line. I don’t think it’s fair.
“I think we should focus on building the cars that can overtake and not throwing in the lottery.”
At the chequered flag, Vettel managed to cross the line in 10th place, scoring his first Championship point since the Spanish Grand Prix.
“We were not quick enough. Why? It’s a difficult question to answer, there’s more than one reason,” he said.
“We know that our car is not quick enough. But I think we would have expected to have better race pace. We need to have a look.”
After he damaged his front wing on the opening lap of the race, Vettel added that he was lucky to stay out of the crash that occurred along the start-finish straight at the Safety Car restart.
“We were quite lucky at the first re-start that we stayed out of trouble, lots of bits on the track,” he said.
“I don’t know what happened, I guess the pace of the leader was not managed well, so the midfield was a bit confused but there was a lot of stuff happening today.
It’s just unnecessary, I guess. As a leader you need to be aware of these things and slow down.
“If you want to wait, wait all the way and then speed up, but not do the stop and go stuff. It’s the same in the motorway – five, 10 or 15 cars back, it most likely ends up in a crash.”
