Vettel realistic after post-Spanish GP test
Ferrari’s quadruple world champion Sebastian Vettel stressed that Ferrari has to work even harder after the Spanish Grand Prix slump if it wants to return to its early-season commanding form.
Sebastian Vettel won the first two races of the season and grabbed three pole positions over the first quartet of flyaway GP weekends. The German was then left shocked in the first race of the European season at Barcelona where his SF71H cannot switch on the tyres.
The 30-year-old stayed in Spain after the race and completed testing on the first day of the post-Spanish GP test to find out what Ferrari could have done better to unlock its pace. He happily accepted the opportunity of being able to search for remedy for Ferrari’s struggles on the aerodynamically demanding Circuit de Catalunya-Barcelona.
“As I said it was good in terms of timing, coming from a poor weekend for us, we were not quick enough and more than not being quick enough we were struggling to make the tyres last -- these things have a link - so it was good to have a possibility to revisit it and now it's up to us to take action.”
Vettel carried out comparison tests between Pirelli’s normal tyres and its new ones developed for the needs of the smooth surface of the Barcelona, Paul Ricard and Silverstone track. Next to the tyre testing, the Heppenheim-born also worked on development work. This work was not aimed at the unique Monaco race track which is the next round of the championship, but at later venues. He revealed that Ferrari could learn much from today’s running, but the Italian squad has to make use of the experiences.
"It's good to have the test to be able to compare and I think we have some ideas. Now it's up to us to turn those ideas into reality. “
Despite to falling 17 points behind championship leader Lewis Hamilton, Vettel remained buoyed by Ferrari’s early form and hopes that Mercedes cannot run away with the championship titles for the fifth consecutive time with dominant pace.
“We learned various things on how to work on track like this one . We know we have a strong car,” concluded the German.
