F1 News
Vettel: We are not quick enough to fight Mercedes
- Jake Williams-Smith
Sebastian Vettel has admitted that Ferrari is not quick enough to challenge Mercedes. The Scuderia brought a number of updates to the Spanish Grand Prix but appear to be no match for Mercedes.
The German finished qualifying in third, a whopping eight-tenths of a second down on the pole time of Valtteri Bottas and pointed to the final sector as a key area in which the team was losing time to its rivals.
Speaking on the grid after qualifying, Vettel admitted that despite feeling confident in the car, the SF90 was simply not quick enough to challenge the Mercedes duo.
"The car doesn’t feel bad but obviously we are not quick enough,” he said.
"I think we got everything out of the car in the first run. In the second run I just had to try something different but it didn’t work. Happy but not happy if you know what I mean.
"It [Sector 3] seems to be more than an Achilles’ Heel at the moment. It is quite clear we seem to be faster down the straights, so probably we carry a little bit less wing than them.
"But in the last sector there are no straights and we are struggling a little bit to bring it together. I just spoke to Valtteri and they were both very happy with the car, and especially in the last sector. But for us it is a bit more tricky.
"I had a bit of understeer and that was probably more than what they had. I think overall in those sort of corners you need the grip, so we might be a bit down on that."
Ferrari will be worried if it's a trend that continues, with the final sector at the Circuit de Catalunya a reliable indicator as to who can expect to be fast at the next race in Monaco.