‘We should’ve done a better job’, laments Vettel

2016 Monaco Grand Prix

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Sebastian Vettel admits that Ferrari should have been closer to the ultimate pace after qualifying almost a second slower than Daniel Ricciardo in fourth for the Monaco Grand Prix.

Despite topping the final practice session, Vettel failed to offer a challenge in the closing stages of qualifying, finishing nine tenths adrift of Ricciardo’s eventual pole position time.

“Unlike everyone else, we didn’t get any quicker,” admits Vettel. “I think we should’ve done and could’ve done a better job. But it is what it is so we have to focus on tomorrow.”

Despite the gap to the front three ahead, Vettel believes that Ferrari are stronger than their pace looked in qualifying.

“I don’t think we are as far behind as it looks,” says Vettel. “I think we had a crack at pole today, but not if we don’t extract the best out of ourselves.

“The car is quick, no doubt. I think we started off well this morning. Thursday, we were on the wrong foot, but there was nothing special by the people in front that we couldn’t have done. But we didn’t do it, so there’s the problem.

“It’s disappointing because I missed a good opportunity to start the race potentially from the front tomorrow.”

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Will Wood
Will has been a RaceFans contributor since 2012 during which time he has covered F1 test sessions, launch events and interviewed drivers. He mainly...

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36 comments on “‘We should’ve done a better job’, laments Vettel”

  1. OmarRoncal - Go Seb!!! (@)
    28th May 2016, 16:58

    Is there any track where Ferrari can have a realistic chance to win this season? Looks like Allison’s absence is hurting the team hard.

    1. Ferrari are always worse in the first half. It’ll happen

    2. Allison has been back working for weeks.

      1. Aaron Noronha
        28th May 2016, 20:13

        Not true. He only returned this week to full active duty

        1. Aaaah great news if true as can pinpoint the drop down to that so now he is back the chase to Merc can recommence and jump back past the fizzy drinks team. What a relief.

          1. It’s. Not. Just. A. Fizzy. Drink. Team.

            (It’s run by a former junior series driver and an old guy who lost an eye racing in F1!)

    3. F1 works in a way that a single persons absence or presence of 2 weeks cant make a difference. He came to ferrari mid 2013. I guess its more making the tyres work in the right temperature/pressure window. Maybe the high pressures have caught ferrari out…

      1. Maybe it is not the car design but the track operations?

        A few weeks off for the TD would make some difference otherwise he would take 2 week holidays during the season as it would not have effect.

        Fizzy drinks comment is tongue in cheek they are an awesome operation same as Bennetton were more than a clothes team in F1.

  2. Ferrari is having a very unimpressive year. Between strategy errors, bad reliability, questionable qualifying form, and collisions they’ve stilled scored quite a few points but I can’t imagine anyone in Maranello being particularly pleased.

  3. I know they changed the rule about visor tear offs being thrown on track but I wonder if Vettel will get in trouble for throwing his dummy out.

    1. Funny how when drivers underperform it becomes “we”, we underperformed or we could’ve done better.

      1. pastaman (@)
        29th May 2016, 12:38

        Funny how people only notice what they want to. Vettel is one of the few drivers in the paddock to readily admit his own mistakes.

      2. He always talkes in plural, even when he wins, you con check it in this same website.

  4. Ferrari have had the 3rd best car on the grid for a while now, a long while, but the new regs helped them and Mercedes out. Monaco is the least fuel hungry track on the grid, if memory serves. So I would have to hazard a guess, this was RBR’s one chance to take pole, any other track, and it’s a safe bet, the fuel savings required to finish a race would reduce RBR’s chances at winning, where as Ferrari and Merc, who are free to spend as much as they see fit with regulations that encourage spending (unlimited turbo boost/fuel restrictions), the engine manufacturers will be better off at the more hungry tracks. Generally speaking.

    1. Red Bull have a bigger budget than anyone or at least equal but do not have to spend much on engines so fail to see the point unless you think they are the poor underdog next to Ferrari and Mercedes?

      1. Thats what im thinking They have more budget individually than Mercedes and Ferrari, no doubting neweys ability but he gets to spend more money on Aero/Chassis than the other teams, they’re bound to have the best chassis season after season.

  5. Vettel is starting to feel the frustration that is common among the most recent Ferrari drivers. When things appear to be improving, Ferrari stagnates, there most be something fundamentally wrong in their development politics, specially when we compare the work that is being done at RedBull. Ferrari at the moment has 6 tokens remaining (Renault has 21), so probably there is not much more to come from that engine, the chassis seems to need a lot of work. At this point the 2015 spec engine seems to be a better solution, that says a lot about their development curve. Also they should know by now that being leaders in Saturday morning while all the other are sandbagging is pointless and embarrassing when we get to see the true potential.

    Vettel went there because it was his dream to emulate his childhood hero, but if he wants to do that he needs to be what Schumacher was to them, he has to become the leader in that team, but will he be able to do it?

    We all want at least a 3 team battle, if not until the end of this year, at least in 2017, so they have to put their act together.

    1. João,

      Schummi took 5 years to win in Ferrari, Vettel is doing great and i think Ferrari is happy with him, since hius 1st year was awesome.

      Let´s wait a bit before talking about frustration, since he could have at least 2 more podiums that were lost by lack of luck and Kvyat trying to emulate PCARS AI (Bahrein, Russia) and no one would be talking about frustration.

  6. I still believe in Ferrari’s potential (at least Vettel’s Ferrari). So far there has no been a clean weekend (maybe Spain the only one) for Vettel:

    1. Australia: 3rd. 1st until SC.
    2. Bahrain: DNES (did not even start).
    3. China: 2nd after 1st lap crash with RAI.
    4. Russia: Bulldozed by KVY.
    5. Spain: 3rd. Bad Q1 (arguably his fault). Could’ve, should’ve, would’ve won with a better strategy.

    No much hope for this race because it is almost imposible to past another car. From Montreal we should have a better idea where Vettel’s chances for the championship really are.

    1. chances for the championship = 0, I guess

  7. What baffles me most is that the pace got lost somewhere in the middle of qualifying. In Q1, Vettel did a 1:14.0, which was the quickest time. In Q2 he was 3-4 tenths off the quickest time and suddenly in Q3 they’re the slowest they’ve been all session long. Maybe again down to tyre pressures and keeping them low enough? Kimi mentioned that they struggled to get the tyres into their working range. Something that could be fixed by Allison? Probably. I think his absence cost Ferrari a lot in the development race this year. Will be tough for them to get back on track, could take them a few races. They must be really hoping for their new turbo charger, maybe then they can finally unleash the full potential of their power unit.

    For tomorrow’s race, with rain predicted, potential Safety Cars and tyre strategy, I think there’s still all to play for, at least for Vettel. Kimi probably not so much…

    1. Temperature perhaps @wallbreaker, or similar to Button’s issues: track rubbering in changing the balance

  8. Funny how quickly mood changes when things are not going your way and specially when another team becomes the main challenger and not your team…

    1. Check your math and keep believing that. 2nd place (drivers/constructors) is still the main challenger.

    2. Indeed @fer-no65,and it sounds a bit too familiar, though maybe more like McLaren in 2010,2011,2013 than early Alonso Ferrari.

    3. At least he doesn´t blame only the team and says that “5th is the best we can do..”

  9. Vet gonna forever forget not staying at Red Bull. I would enjoy Ric and Ves being Vet ran from Ric. Very unloyal 4 wc in pocket and 1 bad yr he gone. Zero wins in a car that won 3. He looks great next to Kimi tho so that aint easy. Imagine Ham leaving after 2011?. He left after many hard yrs and left after beating But. I do like Vet personality alot but i never felt he was way ahead of rivals. Vet was stellar last yr this yr Kimi is closest in pace than he been for yrs

    1. Flip that and Red Bull have not won a title without Vettel. Ricciardo has won 3 races in 2 seasons at Red Bull in the same time Vettel won more and was a champion. Either way the move to Ferrari was always on the cards no matter what as you need new challenges. If Schumacher stayed at Bennetton he may have won every title from 94 to 2006.

  10. There is a such a state of deja vu between Vettel’s Ferrari career and the first two years of Alonso’s Ferrari career….
    1st year Ferrari build a car better than most but just not good enough to beat the team in front. New team mate impressively thrashed.
    2nd year the expectation of moving one step further is not achieved and there is more of a theat from the old team and former team mate. Mclaren and Hamilton for Alonso, see Red Bull and Riccardio for Vettel. Lead driver starts getting increasingly frustrated.

    1. That’s…..spot on

    2. Exactly what I was thinking as well. It’s like 2015 & 2016 are a copy of 2010 and 2011. Both Alonso and Vettel massively impressed in their 1st year at the Prancing Horse, and while Ferrari built the 2nd best car in both 2010 and 2015, they still took a lot wins from their new superstar hire.

      Everyone was optimistic about 2011 and 2016, and that they would fight for the championship. 2011 and 2016 started off with high hopes, and then Ferrari soon realised that the effort was just not good enough. Not good enough to be even the 2nd quickest car all year. Ferrari were jumped by Mclaren in 2011, similar to how they are being jumped by Red Bull this year.

      The irony would be if 2017 and 2012 would be a similar year as well. In 2012, Ferrari built an absolute dog of a car, which was not better than 3rd quickest at the end of the year, but it was Alonso’s heroics that kept them in the WDC battle all the way to the last race. If 2017 turns out like 2012, it would put an evil smile on my face, because I could easily see cracks in the Ferrari – Vettel relationship by 2018, and maybe an exit by Seb at the end of 2019, where he would replaced by a new young superstar.

      1. All plausible. Thing was Alonso had 2 titles and was and is desperate for the magic 3. Vettel has no such worries he has surpassed the magic 3 so can be more relaxed in chasing another title. The desperation to realise your potential is not theres with Vettel he is twice as successful as Alonso.

        1. Nonsense. Vettel was the absolute top dog in 2013. Poles, wins, titles. Over the last 3 years those wins and pole records have been retaken by Hamilton with the possibility of titles too implying he is the top talent in the sport of his generation at least statistically.
          Think losing those stats would irk Vettel somewhat.

      2. Ferrari 2012 was a very good car, was fast and reliable, Alonso had 50 points of advantage before SPA due to RedBull being unreliability.
        I thought that we weren´t in AS or Marca…

        1. It was generally the 3rd or 4th slowest that year. Don’t rewrite the record books. Alonso season was rated so highly because of it.

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