F1 and FIA warned to sort "dangerous" slow laps or face the consequences

McLaren

F1 and FIA warned to sort "dangerous" slow laps or face the consequences

Drivers are lapping increasingly slowly in qualifying to retain tyre life

Sam Hall

Monday 31 August 2020 11:02

McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl has urged Formula 1 and the FIA to address the "dangerous" slow out laps seen in sessions across 2020 before "something big happens".

Drivers lapping slowly to protect the fragile soft Pirelli tyres is not a new feature of F1 in 2020.

Aside from Monza last year where drivers failed to reach the line in time to start a lap, the problem this season has been far more frequent and the closing speeds greater.

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Across the Belgian Grand Prix weekend, the problem was evident in all three practice sessions and throughout the majority of qualifying.

Seidl conceded he does not expect the FIA to introduce minimum lap times, not even for the second race in Bahrain where sub-60 second times for the outer circuit are expected.

“There was a discussion after qualifying yesterday between some parties in order to bring up the topic again, because I think also [from] what we have seen, not just in qualifying but also in free practice sometimes," said Seidl.

"Especially when cars are offset and you have a mix of fast laps and slow laps, it is just dangerous and I think we need to do something in order to make sure that we do not wait until something big happens.”

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Seidl has revealed the talks between several team principals was in response to radio messages coming from the drivers who appeared to find the traffic problems frustrating and amusing in equal measure.

Seidl added: “I think some drivers have been vocal already after free practice on Friday and Saturday and then we had the discussion as well after qualifying about what happened there.

"Of course, we were not happy because, in the end, it cost us a shot for a higher position in Q3 with Lando [Norris].

“Independent of that and independent of our own issue in Q3, it simply makes sense to look into this again.

"Together with the race director [Michael Masi] we will have to see if we can finally find somehow a regulation which just prevents this stuff happening.”

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