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Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel said that he felt 'very uncomfortable' during the race in Azerbaijan, after damaging his soft tyres early on during the first stint.
Vettel was unable to mount a serious challenge against the Mercedes' of Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton throughout the race. Vettel not being able to understand why Ferrari could not capitalise on their apparent pace advantage.
"The first stint was really poor, I struggled to get the tyres to work," Vettel told Paul DiResta during the post-race interviews. "I think the tyres were too cold and then when they were hot they were damaged, so it was never really working
"I was really uncomfortable and inconsistent and just couldn't feel confidence in the car. After that I was looking forward to a difficult stint on the medium tyres but they lasted to the end no problems."
Ferrari looked to have a decent advantage over their closest rivals Mercedes during this year's pre-season testing in Barcelona prior to the start of the season, but have yet to score a victory where Mercedes has made it four one-two victories out of four so far, with drivers Lewis Hamilton and Bottas taking two wins each so far.
However, despite being constantly ahead of Mercedes during the testing in Barcelona, Vettel believes that they can no longer be considered the team to beat when they return to Barcelona for the Spanish Grand Prix in two weeks' time.
"There's still plenty of work for us to do, we were not quite where we want to be", Vettel added. "On average we are not quite there. We are not the favourites going to Barcelona.
"The team is in good spirit. We need to chase them down. We are looking forward to a smooth weekend hasn't been that smooth but it will be crucial to catch them and turn things around."
Grand Prix of Belgium
C. Sainz jr
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Replies (2)
Login to replyajpennypacker
Posts: 2,475
What should be uncomfortable is that his 2nd year teammate is outperforming him on a regular basis. Ferrari saved his ass one more time. Leclerc had already caught up with him by the time the first pit stops came. Leclerc had more pace during the race. It took another embarrassing strategy by Ferrari to keep Charles of the podium again
dr002
Posts: 141
Agreed, he is definitely being outperformed by Leclerc, though not sure putting Leclerc on a two stop would have put him in front of Vettel or Verstappen and it would have been a big roll of the dice given the likelihood of a safety car. Though on the other hand, they would likely have been no worse off, and it would have been awesome to see Leclerc have a go rather than merely trying to manage things...... fortune favours the brave as they say.
In any case, that's the second race in a row Vettel's complained about not being comfortable in the car and struggling to get it to work, whilst at the same time his teammate drove out of his skin in both events...... Ferrari must surely be at least considering favouring the young buck over the entitled old Dad.