Vettel: Ferrari would have been worse off without new Pirelli tyres in Spain

Sebastian Vettel believes that without Pirelli changing the tread depth on their tyres for the Spanish Grand Prix, he may well have finished worse off than the fourth position he eventually finished in. Some fans had subscribed to the conspiracy theory that the Italian tyre manufacturer had, in fact, changed the tyres to help reigning world champions, Mercedes.

After witnessing the state his tyres were left in after testing on Tuesday, there was an even bigger amount of blistering on the tyres that Ferrari used. They were the same compound that Pirelli would have brought to Spain without the changes to tread depth.

Vettel admitted that without the changes Pirelli made to the tyres, Ferrari may well have done worse than P4 on Sunday.

"I think it’s pretty straightforward. Normally you don’t get the chance to revisit these kind of decisions that are made, but I think we did now with the day that we had today," he said.

"I think the result is that if we had the normal tyres on Sunday, we would have probably been even worse off.

"I think it was the correct call, and it was our fault not to have the same tyre wear or life as other people.

"It’s good to have the test to be able to compare and I think we have some ideas. Now it’s up to us to turn those ideas into reality," Vettel added.

"It was good in terms of timing, coming from a poor weekend for us. We were not quick enough and more than not being quick enough we were struggling to make the tyres last. These things have a link.

"So it was good to have a possibility to revisit it, and now it’s up to us to take action."