Ferrari's woes continued in Azerbaijan Sunday, with Sebastian Vettel unable to challenge Mercedes, and an alternate strategy failing Vettel's teammate Charles Leclerc.
Vettel finished third and Leclerc fifth, as the 2019 season is rapidly becoming unsalvageable for Ferrari. Now 74 points off Mercedes in the constructors’ standings, and 35 and 40 points adrift in the drivers’ standings, Ferrari needs to evaluate whether it is fighting Mercedes for the championship or Red Bull for second.
Granted, third place for Vettel is a result that most other teams on the grid would be smiling about, but for Ferrari, which had by far the quickest car throughout practice, the result only serves to highlight its inadequacies yet again.
Vettel lacked pace on both tire compounds used, and it was clear that Leclerc should have been pitted three, maybe four laps earlier so that he still had at least a chance of making the time back to challenge the leaders.
“The first stint was really poor,” said Vettel. “I don’t know. I really struggled to initially get the tires to work and I think they were too cold and I damaged them. By the time that they were hot, they were already damaged, so it was never really working.
“It was really uncomfortable, really inconsistent. I couldn’t get a feel and confidence for the car and that’s usually not so good around here. After that, I was surprised. I was looking forward to a difficult stint on the medium tires but no problem to switch them on and I was much happier to the end. Much happier and more confident (at that point) and I think we had some pace to at least go with them (Mercedes) and put some pressure. Sometimes we had to keep an eye on Max (Verstappen) behind with some of the lapped cars. He was getting a bit closer but, in the end, we had enough pace on the medium tire to react and keep him behind.
“It was crucial to get third and good for Charles to get the fastest lap at the end, to snatch it away from the Mercedes boys, but still plenty of work for us to do. Obviously, we’re not quite where we want to be but at this point, I think we just need to maximize what we can."
Source: Read Full Article