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Sebastian Vettel says that returning to the 2018 spec Pirelli tyres could mix things up in the 2019 battles.
On Friday morning in Spielberg, a meeting is being held between Pirelli, the teams and F1 as they discuss the possibility of returning to the 2018 tyres.
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The compounds for the 2019 season use a thinner thread which was introduced in order to combat the overheating, blistering tyres that were prominent in 2018.
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However, many teams have struggled to get up to speed with the new tyres, with Ferrari one of the teams that has been affected the most.
"I think as it is now, in terms of order, Mercedes is doing a good job and it's up to the others to catch up," Vettel said. "But certainly, it would be an element to try to mix things up.
"For us, we are struggling more with this year's tyres to get them to work in the window for both qualifying and the race. There are a couple of other teams where the drivers agree."
Hard to predict Austria tyre performance
Vettel added that it's difficult to know how the tyres will react around the Red Bull Ring for the Austrian Grand Prix circuit.
At last year's event in Spielberg, it was Mercedes who struggled more than others with the tyres prior to their double retirement.
"I think it's difficult to predict," Vettel said. "Our race pace on Sunday was okay, it wasn't the strongest race pace out there, Mercedes and Lewis controlled the race.
"But I also saw that Valtteri had some issues, I don't know if there was a significant difference between the cars. If you look at the colour of the asphalt, it's much brighter, it's a different track, different loads so it's hard to predict.
"Last year we struggled with the rear left to make it go the distance, Mercedes struggled a bit more than others. But this year it's a lot different."
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