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Sebastian Vettel is confident that Ferrari will not fall behind Mercedes as the two battle for the 2017 championship. Despite Mercedes leading in the constructor's standings, Vettel has a 14 point margin to Lewis Hamilton in the driver's championship.
After the Monaco Grand Prix, Ferrari appeared to fall back from the Silver Arrows and didn't come out on top again until the Hungarian Grand Prix last weekend. Vettel emerged victorious in both qualifying and the race, leading home Ferrari's third one-two of the season.
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"Equally, the season is long, there are a lot of races to come, and a lot can happen," the German said. "But I think we have all the ingredients that we need to stay there [at the front of the field] and hopefully have a good rest of the season."
Vettel handled driving duties alongside teammate Kimi Raikkonen on the second day of testing at the Hungaroring earlier this week and stated that it is important to test the car outside of a race weekend. He revealed that the team tried "some small things" which produced positive feedback.
"It's important to get in the car outside a race weekend when you have a bit more freedom to try some stuff, both for the team and also for the driver. We tried some small things just to get a feel, and the feeling was good. I think we know in general after so many races what we need to do, but we'll have a bit of a break for everyone, which is important, then we'll start again."
Fergal Walsh
Azerbaijan Grand Prix
C. Sainz jr
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Replies (3)
Login to replyKevin
Posts: 5,393
I have absolutely no fate Ferrari can keep up with Mercedes..
Kevin
Posts: 5,393
faith
Wolfgang
Posts: 313
why not? I mean they definetely had taken the biggest step over the winter, so i can´t see a reason why they can´t keep up.
Let´s put it this way: If a car is super fast thanks to new innovations or a certain lead in development (like the Merc engines in 2014 onwards for example) the gap to the other teams is quite big in the first step. The more time flies by the gap is getting smaller and smaller and the possible steps to take are getting smaller as well. Ferrari was able to challenge Red Bull in 2012 very well, whereas in 2011 they weren´t if i remind correctly..
So i don´t see why they can´t keep the pace in drivetrain development because this is the only point i see Ferrari a little bit behind Merc. The chassis has proven to be the absolute best. Vettel said for example after Silverstone they had been 10kph quicker through copse.. And as soon as mechanical grip in slow and middle speed corners comes into play the Ferrari is definetely better than the Merc. I´d even say Red Bull are chassis-wise at the same level as Merc. And maybe McLaren is there as well..