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Sebastian Vettel believes that Ferrari are now close enough to challenge Mercedes after finishing second to Lewis Hamilton in Canada.
The German, who beat both Mercedes off the line despite starting third, led the early part of the race but had to cede the win to Hamilton after failing to make the most of a two-stop strategy.
"Lewis was a bit too quick, that was the issue," conceded Vettel. "We had a good weekend, a fantastic start."
Despite the strong start, a strategy blunder by the Ferrari team left Vettel playing catch up. Although ultimately unable to re-pass Hamilton, Vettel believes the race has shown that Ferrari has closed the gap to Mercedes.
"I was pushing all race, committed to different strategy, Lewis stayed out so we had to see what the tyres were doing," he said. "We managed to close the gap in the end. We struggled the first races but we’re close to Mercedes."
Grand Prix of Belgium
G. Zhou
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Replies (3)
Login to replymclarenfan1968
Posts: 1,027
Covering for the team's mediocrity for the 3rd time in this season is not going to help address the issue. Vettel should do what Maurizio did, brand the strategy a mistake. It doesn't matter if Vettel took the decision with the team or not to do it that way, admitting mistake or highlighting the error is the first step to addressing it. Staying in denial only perpetuates the mediocrity. Hamilton would not have a prayer to pass Vettel if the positions were reversed. 3 clear wins thrown away through buffoonery, Alonso is surely giggling at all this.
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
The car is, now they just need to get their strategy straight! But it was nevertheless very positive to see in terms of pace.
khasmir
Posts: 893
The gap has been reduced but they aren't there yet, certainly not for quali.
Rosberg made a mistake on his 2nd place lap and Hamilton said his pole lap wasn't very good either. Yet Vettel was still over 0.1 sec behind Rosberg while giving it everything, so with a good lap from the Mercs that would have been at least 0.3 sec from the pole.
But if they can keep on making starts like that and have good race pace we might finally see a couple of race wins for Ferrari.
Arrivabene admitted it was a mistake to stop twice, hindsight is always a wonderful thing...