Ferrari slip back in British qualifying
Ferrari could not keep up the pace with dominant Mercedes, but it was also outpaced by Red Bull. In addition to the poor performance, Sebastian Vettel was struck again by reliability issues which means he has to take a five-place grid penalty.
Ferrari showed poor peformance from the get-go on Friday, lacking the speed to compete with Red Bull Racing as well.
“Fifth and sixth is not what we want, we are not happy with where we finished today, but this is the best we could achieve," said Kimi Räikkönen.
"We know our limits on this track and where we struggle, the circuit layout and the conditions don’t make it very easy for us and we are a bit stuck with the things we can do."
Räikkönen made a series of mistakes in the second qualifying session as he spun on the way to his first flying lap, then he outbraked himself on the second flyer.
"This afternoon the car felt the best it has been in the whole weekend, but obviously we were not fast enough. In Q2 I made it very difficult for myself, I spun at the start of my run with the first new set, and then locked the front wheel on the next one. At my last attempt I was able to make it through to Q3, but these things shouldn’t happen."
The 2007 champion hopes Ferrari can repeat its tradition of being more competitive in race conditions.
"Race conditions are always different and can change a lot here, usually we are stronger in the race and hopefully tomorrow will be the same. We’ll try to make a good start, make the tires work and take the right decisions."
Team mate Sebastian Vettel could not hide his disappointment as he failed to complete a clean lap in the all-important last qualifying session.
“I’m not happy with my lap, the car was better than this morning. I was in a very good lap but I lost the car at Stowe in the first run, trying a bit too hard, then in the second one I went wide in Turn 1 and lost the car from there."
The quadruple champion admitted Ferrari are slipping backwards as the season goes on and he is aware of the need of sudden developments.
"On this track it seems we are a bit behind, I think we have done good steps in the past, but probably not enough, also compared to other people, so I think there’s a lot of catching up for us to do. We need to make the car quicker, to put more downforce in it, make it more efficient at the same time, and add a bit of power."
On top of the lack of downforce, a 5-place grid penalty due to a gearbox problem that occurred after just 9 laps will make things more complicated for the German.
"Replacing the gearbox is something we have to accept, and we did accept it going into the session. It’s not something that is in your head when you start a race."
"I look forward for a good one tomorrow, the pace is there, we don’t belong where we start the race, and that’s why I’m quite sure we can make good progress. I hope for a good start, a good first lap and then we’ll see. Maybe we’ll have some rain, anyway we need to keep our head down, keep calm and just go racing and enjoy," stated Vettel.
