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Ferrari must make improvements overnight to have a chance of fighting on Saturday and Sunday, according to Sebastian Vettel.
The Maranello squad dominated practice in Bahrain, closing out a one-two finish in both of the two sessions on Friday.
Charles Leclerc headed the opening session before Vettel took over on top of the timesheets as darkness fell, with the gap to Mercedes reading over half a second after FP2.
Vettel was overall left happy with the day, saying that it has started on a stronger foot than it did two weeks ago at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
"Certainly, today was a better day for us overall, but I still think we need to pick up the pace for tomorrow," he said.
"We hope to be in better shape and much closer than Melbourne, and today the result was good. We were probably on a different strategy than other people, so I wouldn't put too much attention on that.
"For tomorrow, we still need to improve, especially as Mercedes look fast.
"We tried everything in Australia, but coming here, we know that some things weren't right in Australia. We started off in a better place. But I still feel that there is more potential in the car that we need to unleash for tomorrow."
Vettel added that he has found trust in the rear of the car, which held him back throughout the weekend in Melbourne.
"It was less bumpy [in Bahrain], but that comes with the track and [I had] more trust in the rear which was our Achilles heel in Australia."
Vettel suffered from a spin at Turn 2 towards the end of the second practice session, with some of his fellow drivers also getting caught out by the corner.
The four-time world champion says that although the car is feeling strong, it isn't quite where it was after pre-season testing.
"Barcelona was really good, but it was certainly better today [compared to Melbourne], the track is different. We still need to find something. I'm not entirely happy, I still don't have the feeling that I want to have."
Grand Prix of Belgium
C. Sainz jr
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Replies (4)
Login to replycalle.itw
Posts: 8,527
Ditch the pornstache, Vettel!
Ferrari looks much better compared to Melbourne for sure, but they do seem to be behind. Ferrari was caught sleeping at the wheel. Again. Sadly, they haven't learned from their mistakes... Any of their mistakes at all, and mark my word: it will cost them the title to Merc' again, and it could, depending on how good Red Bull is, maybe even cost them second.
h3x6g0n
Posts: 459
Indeed, the stache doesn't suit Vettel at all, it makes him look like a wife-beating hick.
It will probably be a very close Q between the top three and even closer on Sunday.
The closer the cars get performance-wise, the more important the driver's skills will become, which makes up the most interesting part of racing, imho.
Good times ahead!
f1ski
Posts: 726
There seems to be very different approaches by Ferrari and MB. One utilizes practice to see how fast they can go the other practices to understand what make the car drive differently and understand how to make the car faster over the course of the race.
xoya
Posts: 583
Hahahaha, Nigel Mansell wannabe. :D
Moustache really doesn't suit him.
In my country, people say (this is a literal paraphrase): he wears it like a chicken wears tits. :) Original: "Stoji mu kao piletu sise."