Sebastian Vettel backed world champion Lewis Hamilton’s opinion that Nico Rosberg should have been penalised for driving through yellow flags in qualifying at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
The four-time world champion on Monday repeated the view of race winner Hamilton by saying that it was a bad example to other drivers.
“The worst thing about this is that we are an example,” said the Ferrari driver.
“And next week, there’ll be a go-kart race somewhere and there will be a double yellow flag – because somebody went off – and the marshals probably go out to help him.
“And then, the way the kids think, is ‘I don’t need to lift off much because in Formula One it’s OK’. And that’s us, the pinnacle, and that’s how we have to behave.
“That’s what I don’t like about it. I think in the past we didn’t have the technology to time the different sectors around the track and we only had Sector 1, Sector 2 and Sector 3.
“The rule of thumb was that you are not allowed to improve in a yellow sector.
“And double yellows? If you look it up, in the rulebook, it means be prepared to stop. So, arguably, if you go two kph or four kph slower, or you brake a little earlier, and you drop one and a half tenths, I don’t think you are preparing to stop.”
Vettel was clearly referring to Mercedes driver Rosberg’s pole lap in the final seconds of Q3 when he spoke.
Fellow German Rosberg escaped a penalty despite a stewards inquiry into the incident when he slowed down during waved double yellows on his fastest pole-clinching lap.
After winning Sunday’s race to go top of the championship for the first time this year, Hamilton re-opened the debate when he said Rosberg had not slowed enough and would have struggled to stop if a car, or marshal, had been on the track.
“It’s one of those things we are trying to improve — and try to make it more fair — to give us drivers the chance to finish our lap, even if an unfortunate situation comes up, where there’s a yellow flag,” added Vettel.
“But, in my opinion, it got worse this weekend. We had many unnecessary discussions.
“As I’ve said in the past, it is clear — don’t improve under yellow.
“I’m not a fan of penalising every single one because we need to race as well, but I think it was pretty much what I was trying to say earlier.
“And I think we didn’t set a great example on Saturday.” – Agence France-Presse
