Sebastian Vettel had to be content with a 3rd place finish at the Chinese GP, his first podium finish of this season. However, raceday did not go according to plan for Ferrari, as despite having an advantage on the straights, Leclerc and Vettel weren’t able to cause much trouble to the two Mercedes men.
The highlight of the race sadly was when Ferrari used team orders to ask Leclerc to let Vettel pass him. The move wasn’t well received by Leclerc, who told his team that he was pulling away.
In the post race interview, Vettel was obviously questioned about the Ferrari strategy and if he felt it was right on their part to swap cars at that early stage of the race.
Vettel explained that he was faster than Leclerc and thus the team decided that it was the right time to use team orders. However, the Ferrari man was happy to be on the podium for the first time this season.
“I’m happy to be on the podium. We tried to stick with them but we couldn’t, they were too quick right from the start. I had a bit of a race with Max which was good fun. But the objective was to chase Merc down but they were just too quick. We’d have loved to be a faster.” Vettel said.
“I felt I could go faster [than Charles] but it was a bit difficult for me to find a rhythm and locked up, losing the advantage I gained.
“I think it’s fair if you see the whole race that we were just not able to stick with Mercedes. It’s a shame Charles couldn’t catch Max at the end. Plenty of homework for us. It’s a good result but not a great result.” he added.
