Last Year Our Car Wasn’t Quick Enough – Vettel

Published 08/13/2018, 6:35 AM EDT

Follow Us

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel has had one of the best cars under him this year. The German had every opportunity to enter the summer break with a comfortable lead in the drivers’ championship. Instead, F1 title rival Lewis Hamilton leads him by 24 points. However, Vettel is confident the Maranello team can turn things around when racing resumes.

The pendulum has swung between Vettel and Hamilton all season long up till now. But now, Vettel held the advantage as the summer break approached. He won in Silverstone to lead Hamilton by eight points.

Unfortunately, the mistakes began to trickle in for the 4-time world champion Ferrari driver. He crashed out of the lead in Germany under damp conditions. Hamilton needed no second invitation and took the win. Hamilton went on to take back-to-back victories by triumphing in Hungary.

As a result, a 32-point swing handed Hamilton a hefty lead which is worth more than a race win’s worth of points. But Vettel has opted to remain positive inspite of the setbacks.

via Imago

“We had sometimes the pendulum swinging our way, sometimes not,” he said. “From my point of view I think it’s been fairly consistent. The one error that was very costly [in Germany] – that was quite small, because I wasn’t even trying but went off.

“That’s part of the game. I can’t rewind the clock. It has happened. It obviously hurt us, but I’m quite confident that if we have the car to fight with, we can put them under pressure and make things happen in the second half.”

Both Ferrari and Mercedes have been developing their cars at an extraordinary rate, which has seen one, then the other, jump ahead in the competitive order.

Ferrari and Vettel’s title challenge unravelled following the summer break last year, with Vettel retiring in Singapore and Japan, but the Mercedes was faster in terms of outright pace. The reverse is the case this year – and that’s what gives Vettel hope.

“Last year, we lost the championship I think because our car wasn’t quick enough to be a match in the final part of the season, despite what happened with the DNFs,” he said.

“So I hope that this year, and I think this year has shown so far that our car is more efficient, our car is stronger and still has a lot of potential to unleash. I’m quite confident with what’s sitting in the pipeline that we can improve. So we’ll see. It should be an exciting second part of the year.”

via Imago

SHARE THIS ARTICLE :

Written by:

Dhruv George

14,311Articles

One take at a time

Dhruv George is a senior Formula One and NASCAR analyst for EssentiallySports, having authored nearly 12000 articles spanning different sports like F1, NASCAR, Tennis, NFL, and eSports. He graduated with a PG Diploma in Journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications. Dhruv has also conducted interviews with F1 driver Pierre Gasly and Moto2 rider Tony Arbolino.
Show More>