FIA back Vettel's VSC claims

Formula One race director Charlie Whiting has backed Sebastian Vettel's claims that drivers can use the presence of a Virtual Safety Car to their advantage during races, saying he now realises the German's concerns about replacing the current system are legitimate.

Following the Spanish Grand Prix, Vettel commented that drivers could be clever with their use of driving lines to effectively cut their time.

"It's the same for everyone but the FIA is supplying us with a system that makes us follow a delta time," Vettel said.

"And everybody has to slow down by, I think, 40 per cent, but I think everybody's aware you can have a faster way to go under VSC than just follow the delta – by saving distance.

"So, I think we should have a system that hasn't got this loophole, because it forces us to drive ridiculous lines around the track, and everybody's doing it, so I don't think it's a secret.

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"Our sport should be in a better shape than supplying software that's just poor and allows us to find some extra performance that way."

Initially, Whiting shot down the claims from Vettel, but has now changed his mind, saying that gains can indeed be made, even if they are very minuscule.

"Yes, I've worked it out now," he admitted at the Canadian GP.

"The calculation that the system does every 50 metres is based on the distance from the timing line.

"So if you can shorten that, you can gain tiny fractions. The way we've calculated it with our software guys is you can possibly gain about 150 milliseconds [per lap].

"But in Formula 1 that's worth having. But that's the extent of it, as far as it was explained to be me by our software people. We can rectify it, and make it a bit more bulletproof."