Sebastian Vettel has emphasized that the efforts by Ferrari are now sufficient, as they are nowhere near to their rivals on the track.
This was supposed to be the year Ferrari take on the might of Mercedes and knock them off their perch. But Ferrari is languishing in mid-table, with just a single podium finish in 3 races.
That podium was by Charles Leclerc in the season-opening Austrian Grand Prix. His partner Sebastian Vettel is yet to get there, and spoke about the issues the team is going through.
“It’s positive that the car’s performance on a Sunday was back to normal, but it’s also not a secret that at the moment our normal is not good enough to really put the people ahead under pressure. Obviously our mission, our target is to do a better job than the others, so in that regard, we fell a bit short.”
Sebastian Vettel: The pit spots need to be more efficiently done
He also spoke about other issues crippling the team. Apart from conceding he pointed out that both he and Leclerc need to do better with the car, and complained about the time they lose in pit stops.
This has been evident quite a few times already this season. Red Bull are brilliant with their pit stops; Mercedes are up there too. And to challenge them, this facet of the game needs to be improved drastically.
“Both Charles and I need to be faster inside the car to make the call to do the stop. By the time we pitted, I think I got a bit stuck with the traffic in the pit lane. On the tyre choice, it’s something we decide as a team.
“Charles came in the lap before, it was still mixed conditions, and normally you struggle with the medium and the hard to warm them up, so the soft is more straightforward.”
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Ferrari has made crucial changes in the technical structure, including a more prominent role for Rory Bryne – arguably their best designer in F1 history. The Tifosi around the world would be hoping everything falls in place, and a massive turnaround is seen this season.
