Sebastian Vettel continues Ferrari's ominous pace and promises more ahead of Italian Grand Prix
Ferrari’s ominous pace continued in practice for the Italian GP at Monza today as Sebastian Vettel lapped within fourteen hundredths of Valtteri Bottas’ Mercedes. But the world championship points leader hinted there could be even more to come as he said he had lacked total confidence in his car’s handling in the low downforce trim that is essential in racing cathedral of speed,
Hot on the heels of his strong performance in Belgium last weekend when he hounded winner Lewis Hamilton all the way to the chequered flag, on a circuit on which the Englishman’s Mercedes was expected to excel, Vettel said he had been very happy with that result.
“The way the car went at Spa confirmed our belief that we have addressed its shortcomings,” the German champion said, adding that there were no tracks remaining on the calendar in which he expected the sort of problems that had beset the team at Silverstone where Mercedes ran away and hid. "We can improve the car," he said after today’s two practice sessions. "I don't yet have the confidence I want and need round here.
"There are a couple of things we need to do better - car balance, stability and braking, which is important round here to get the confidence. Because you are low downforce you need to have the confidence to just throw the car there. We are not yet where I think we can be but we should be a bit better tomorrow. For sure we'll be quicker than today. But by how much, I don't know."
Having been fastest in the first session and only a hair behind Bottas in the second, title challenger Hamilton said it had been a good day in the Silver Arrows camp. “It was a clean day. We got the running done, we got through our programme with no problems. The car seems nicely balanced here. We just have some work to do to eke out a little bit more performance. It looks quite close between us and the Ferraris, so I anticipate it's going to be similar to the last race in that sense.”
Vettel also believes that, and that Ferrari can challenge for victory on their home ground even though it is another track expected to favour Mercedes’ slightly superior horsepower.
"Obviously, we know they are very strong around here," he said of his rivals. "It's an engine track, a power circuit, that's their strength the last couple of years. They are very quick. They were quick whenever they went out, which is what we expected. But we looked after ourselves, and we'll see what we can do tomorrow. We can improve the car and if we sort a couple of things out, we should be in better shape."
Red Bull, however, while struggling with Renaults power deficit, will also have the insuperable of starting further down the grid than their usual fifth and sixth paces, as Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo respectively face grid place drops of 15 and 20 places for using more than the four internal combustion engines and associated energy harvesting components and turbochargers that teams are permitted during the season.
“We will start the race a bit further back with the penalties but hopefully I can enjoy overtaking a good number of cars on Sunday,” the Dutchman said. “It makes sense to take the penalties here as this track is already not that good for us. Singapore [in two weeks’ time] is better for our car so we don’t want to risk anything there.”
McLaren have the same philosophy with Fernando Alonso, who has the greatest number of penalties this weekend – 35 – again because their car is better suited to Singapore’s upcoming street track.
The Woking team had further talks with Renault today, as they move close to divorce from current engine supplier Honda.
