McLaren against knee-jerk SC changes

The former world champion was perceived to have gained an advantage by not being punished soon enough after passing the safety car as it exited the pitlane, following Mark Webber's accident.

The team's managing director Jonathan Neale said that while the Sporting Working Group was evaluating the incident, he thought it would be unwise to introduce immediate changes to the regulations without considering them fully.

"I think we should be wary of knee-jerking in the reactions," Neale said during this week's Vodafone McLaren Mercedes phone-in. "If history's taught us anything in rule-making in Formula 1, it's that lurching from one thing to another doesn't pay off. The rules are there.

"I would be wary of knee-jerking," he added. "There wasn't a lot wrong with last weekend [in Valencia] and I don't think we should be doing instant rule-making.

"But the Sporting Working Group are taking a look at what happened last weekend, with the FIA, and they'll have some kind of measures in response."

Neale said that he believed instances where the safety car was introduced to the race form part of the fabric of the sport and produced elements of unpredictability that are essential to the entertainment factor.

"I think that degree of unpredictability - although sometimes it causes us to smart depending on whether you just luck in or luck out - some of that factor I think is good for F1 and good for the sport," he said. "Whilst I don't think that F1 should ever become a lottery, I do think that weather and the unpredictability of what happens with the safety car and can you call your driver in at the last minute or...

"You can't predict accidents, you can't predict what's going to happen when the safety car comes out and you have to prepare yourself.

"I think that the teams with their strategists have to, as we do, look at various moments in the race and you have to then arm your driver with the knowledge that they may now be in the window and should they see a safety car board - because they will see it before we see it on the timing screen - then they dive into the pitlane."