F1's drivers pleased with immediate Pirelli response to British GP tyre failures

Formula 1's drivers have welcomed the swift response taken by Pirelli to address last weekend's Silverstone tyre failures, although remain uncertain how the changes will affect the pecking order.

"It's very important that we as drivers feel safe; there could have been a big accident in the last race weekend. So I think it's a good thing that Pirelli are reacting to do a change." But while agreeing with the Mexican sentiments over safety, Force India's Adrian Sutil - whose team had originally been against any change for purely performance reasons - insisted he had always felt safe running on the 2013 tyres as they were. "As long as it's for safety, they have to improve it," Sutil acknowledged. "But it hasn't been 100% that it was a real tyre issue. One says it's a tyre issue that caused the punctures in Silverstone. Some people say it's maybe kerbing or something like that. So it's always hard to see where the problem is. But four punctures in a race is too much, so they have to get behind it. "I feel safe on these tyres and had no problems with them. I did some two-stop races, a two-stop at Silverstone, so for me the concern is not so much." Focus is now set to turn to how the revised structures to be introduced over the course of the next two race weekends will impact on the competitive order, given the teams previously opposed to any change had imposed their respective veto for that very reason. Mercedes' Rosberg, whose team have generally experienced higher degradation levels than their rivals until recent races, reckons the alterations will serve to move things around. "It's very likely that it's going to have an impact. On performances, differences, qualifying, race. It will be interesting and it's possible it's going to mix things up a bit," the German said. "But it's also an opportunity for us as a team to try and understand it better than earlier, than other people and try and make the most of it. His compatriot Vettel adopted a more cautionary stance - "it's difficult to foresee what is going to happen" - but made clear that in reality it didn't matter what happened to the pecking order provided the tyres were now indeed safe. "It doesn't matter if it changes competition," he declared to Sky Sports News. "When we talk about safety it's good that we are not listening to everybody and everyone to have an opinion because some people will always agree, some people will always disagree, as a principle "So in that regard it's good that the decision was made from the top and people and teams have to live with it. Our only interests at the end of the day are that the sport is safe and I'm happy that there was something happening now." Lotus's Kimi Raikkonen agreed when speaking to Sky Sports News that it was too early to suggest how things might pan out on track. "I have no idea," he said. "Obviously we haven't run it yet. We will have to go through the race weekend and see what happens in the race."