Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel Stand United Against 2019 F1 Regulations

They might be the most competitive rivals on track, but off track they share similar vision and values for the sport. Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel might not agree on a lot of things together, but the 2019 F1 regulations have gotten the two world champions stand together.

The tweaks  to the new regulations include a simplified front-wing, with a larger span, and low outwash potential, as well as a wider and deeper rear-wing. All these are done in a hope to make overtaking easier and more feasible, than this year. 2017 onwards, the cars have become much faster and much wider, but this had made the cars difficult to overtake on the circuit.

The 2019 regulations come as a response to that. Committing to resolve the lack of overtaking, the F1 strategy group came up with this solution. However the regulations mean the cars will be slower. And slower by a good margin of 1.5s. The decision has already taken a lot of criticism from the paddock, but now two of the most influential drivers on the grid have spoke against them.

Lewis Hamilton responded by saying that he doubted the changes will make the racing experience any good, that too at the cost of slower cars.

“I don’t know if that’s… it’s not going to make any difference if you make us three seconds or one-and-a-half second slower, it’s not going to make the racing any better.

“We always want to go faster, we want to improve technology, push the boundaries and limits, one of the exciting things this year is we are breaking records.

“It’s incredible what the technology we have and what we’re doing with it, [next year] we should be at least as fast as we are this year [while] just making the racing better.”

Vettel agreed with Hamilton regarding the issue, finding the issue comical at best.

“I find it a bit comical. In 2009 we went ‘let’s go less aerodynamics, better racing’, then we said ‘the cars are too slow, let’s go and put more aerodynamics and make them wider and more spectacular’.

“All the drivers feedback was ‘thank you very much, that’s what we like’, it’s more challenging, you see us more exhausted after the race and now you make them slower again!

“I don’t know, it’s a bit like cruising to America and changing direction 100 times.

“I think you should ask us what we need to overtake.

“We are drivers – not to say that we know everything, we don’t know anything about engineering the car – but we know how the cars feel, and their limitations to overtake, but we’re not really asked.”