Safety car concerns for Webber

Safety in regard to tyres has been to the fore recently and Mark Webber has expressed concerns about the speed of the safety car affecting tyre pressure. The Williams driver thinks the speed at which the safety car leads the pack can be dangerous if it is not fast enough to maintain tyre pressure for the green flag at the restart of the race.

Mark Webber.

Photo by xpb.cc.

"The speed of the safety car is massively concerning," Webber told ITV. "It is too slow and we lose so much pressure in the tyres. When you go back to green it is dangerous. I mean for Fernando (Alonso) and I in Monaco it was very bloody dangerous!"

"Michael (Schumacher) had his front and rear tyre failures in Barcelona because his tyre pressures were too low when he went back to green."

The one set of tyres per qualifying and race regulation has stirred up concerns about safety issues, especially after Kimi Raikkonen's McLaren crashed out on the last lap of the European GP when the team opted not to bring him in for a tyre change. Webber is not keen on the tyre rule.

"I think that is strange that we are doing an economy run with the tyres," he said. "Okay, cars have done Grands Prix for the last 50 years with one set of tyres, but things have moved on a little bit since then."

"Bjorn Borg probably used the same tennis racket for a few tournaments, but Roger Federer doesn't have to do that now, and it's the same for us. The boundaries have been pushed back in so many different ways that to say you have to got to do the whole race on a set of tyres…"

Many people think that the tyre rule is forcing drivers to stay out on track and take dangerous chances with less than ideal rubber rather than lose places by stopping for a tyre change. However, Sauber's Jacques Villeneuve doesn't see a problem.

"Safety wise why should it be dangerous?" The Canadian said in regard to the tyre rule. "I've said before, the only reason there was a problem at the last race was because of flat-spotting a tyre and braking vibrations, and that could have happened even with last year's rules."