Vettel mystified by Ferrari’s loss of pace

2016 Spanish Grand Prix

Posted on

| Written by

Sebastian Vettel says he doesn’t know why Ferrari found themselves so far off the pace in qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix.

The team were within three-tenths of a second of Mercedes in all three practice sessions. But they ended qualifying 1.1 seconds off the pace and were pushed back to the third row of the grid by the Red Bulls

Vettel said his car’s handling today was “not as good as it was all weekend so we need to understand.”

“Obviously conditions were different but not too different,” he told reporters after qualifying.

Vettel took sixth, his worst qualifying performance so far this year (excluding penalties), and will start behind team mate Kimi Raikkonen.

“I think he just had maybe a bit better feeling in qualifying,” Vettel reflected. “I was struggling throughout already, Q1 wasn’t great, whereas this morning was very good.”

However Vettel said the team shouldn’t over-react to the setback at a circuit which can be fickle.

“I’m responsible for the changes as well equally as the team and we were confident we were applying the right things,” he said. “But I think we need to calm down.”

“Barcelona is very sensitive on changes, on ambient, on track. I think as a fact we didn’t get the car to work the way we should and that’s why we under-performed.”

2016 Spanish Grand Prix

    Browse all Spanish Grand Prix articles

    Author information

    Keith Collantine
    Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

    Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

    23 comments on “Vettel mystified by Ferrari’s loss of pace”

    1. I have no idea what happend to them today, but it just cannot happen if they want to fight Mercedes. You can’t try and win the race if you have to fight the RB’s first, you just can’t.

    2. classic F.U.B.A.R by Ferrari today.

      1. Ferrari Ur Behind A Renault?

        1. (engine)

        2. I always thought that meant something else

    3. Maybe nothing but rumours are going about replacing team principle, hiring new staff, they are working under threats. They used to do this and it never helped, last year they seemed to be working in a more positive and relaxed environment. Seems now Marchionne is putting huge pressure on them they get worse.

      1. I can’t help but think Marchionne is putting pressure on because they are getting worse (or at least, underperforming (not meeting expectations)). I do understand why he is annoyed.

        That said, I don’t agree with the pressure attitude, you’re right in saying it definitely doesn’t help

        1. Pressure and sacking people. If they had Newey they would still be the same. They fired Aldosterone Costa and rumours say they want him back. He could not turn Ferrari round when he was there went to Mercs is their chief designer and they are quite good. Just leave them be and do not put more pressure on, Ferrari will have more pressure than anyone due to who they are no more needs to be applied.

          1. Exactly. The constant interference and pressure will only make them perform worse.

    4. I guess he now knows, to some degree, how Alonso felt in his 5 years at Ferrari. after a ‘dream’ start, it all went pearshaped when they couldn’t give him a quick car. same situation for vettel, although this Ferrari is still reasonably competitive compared to the one Alonso got in 2011.

      Ferrari keep proving Alonso right race after race
      lets hope he’s also right about McLaren

      1. Good point. I fully agree with you. Vettel has the best and relatively competitive car than what Alonso got. Still Alonso would fetch better results than just crying ajd justifying on Radio about crash

      2. There were some really good posts about this very thing when Alonso jumped to McLaren.

    5. Adam (@rocketpanda)
      14th May 2016, 17:45

      Honestly, all this talk of heads rolling isn’t going to help. When things aren’t going well why is the first reaction to get rid of someone? They haven’t done well granted, but chopping and changing people all the time and running a culture of fear isn’t going to get good results. It’s not exactly like they’ve got a bad team or are struggling for money, though I suppose that’s what makes their issues all the more mystifying.

      Pretty certain both Ferrari’s will probabably overhaul both Red Bulls anyway.

      1. Spot on. It’s too soon for Marchionne to be baying for blood. Ferrari did well last year and have been set back by bad luck so far. Kimi and Seb work together not against. Seb could have been higher up the points if not for kyat and breakdowns.

    6. The problem is not the people but machinery. Ferrari is behind on engine with Mercedes and aero with red Bull. Cannot fix that all at once.
      Doesn’t help when Vettel starts whining.

      1. People are responsible for the machinery.

        Also watched Vettel’s post qualy interview..no whining detected

    7. Freak incident or last minute set-up changes?

    8. Things are going to be much tighter with Kimi this year.
      And considering Kimi is the oldest active driver, and way past his prime, this can’t sound good for Vettel.

      Although Kimi is looking much better than last year. This guy is an enigma.

      1. Is Kimi older than Button?

        Ferrari are struggling to win but for me Ferrari are more about engines so as a true benchmark for their team and to at least get half the winning car being a Ferrari give Red Bull the engine but ask for big Ferrari badges all over the Red Bull, job done.

        1. +1. Good one.

    9. Another massive Ferrari blunt, last season, no great potential but near perfect execution, this season some potential, but Ferrari has been melting it away.

    10. Maybe they went for a race setup thinking they would still be 3 and 4 on the grid.

    11. Kimi, Vettel, Button are all a father.
      Alonso not yet..

    Comments are closed.