Martin Brundle and Nico Rosberg have their say on Ferrari after another disappointing weekend in Suzuka
Monday 9 October 2017 09:53, UK
Ferrari are paying for their lack of reliability at the end of 2017 and are "running out of steam" in their championship battle, according to Sky F1's Martin Brundle.
After entering the summer break with a 14-point advantage over Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel hasn't won a race since then and is now 59 points adrift following his retirement and the Mercedes driver's victory at the Japanese GP.
With just four rounds remaining in 2017, Hamilton can claim the title as early as the United States GP on October 22.
The Suzuka engine failure was Vettel's second in as many weekends - team-mate Kimi Raikkonen also suffered a power unit problem in Malaysia - and Ferrari's issues are a far-cry from the consistently reliable Mercedes.
And Brundle believes that while the Scuderia have made huge strides in 2017 after failing to land a single race win last year, they are now paying the price for extracting everything out of their car in the first half of the season.
"It looks like the Ferraris are beginning to run out of reliability and steam at the end of the season," the Sky F1 pundit said. "It's like they have wrung out every ounce of performance through the year.
"They're just giving up a bit now and we've seen a lot of unreliability creeping in. The car is so strong and so fast but that's hurt their championship hopes big time."
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Vettel started Sunday's race on the front row behind Hamilton but soon reported he was losing power, with Ferrari retiring his car after just four laps and diagnosing the fault as a spark plug failure.
Reigning world champion Nico Rosberg was Sky F1's special guest in Suzuka and he claimed Ferrari only have themselves to blame for their recent woes. His former team Mercedes, on the other hand, have only had one engine-related retirement all season.
"It's not even fair to say it's just bad luck," Rosberg said. "It's also getting the reliability right, which Mercedes have done, and Ferrari are not where they need to be.
"They're breaking down too often recently and that's hurting their championship chances."
Mercedes, however, were quick to sympathise with their closest constructors' rivals.
"We can relate to it," Toto Wolff told Simon Lazenby after the race. "The Ferrari guys certainly feel awful at the moment. I get on well with them and with Maurizio [Arrivabene, team boss] and it's not a situation you want to be in.
"Maybe it's the development of the team. They made a huge step forward from 2016 to 2017, their car is super fast - it just lacks reliability and that is the next step."
'Ferrari won't give up'
Hamilton's recent form and Vettel's dramatic decline means the Briton will become a four-time world champion if he outscores his rival by 16 points at the US GP. Ferrari, however, insist they will not give up.
"The championship is not finished," said team boss Maurizio Arrivabene, who added that he had not spoken to Ferrari president Sergio Marchione after the most recent failure. "We will fight until the last race, the last lap and the last turn. That is what I can guarantee."
And Vettel insisted: "We still have a chance this year. Obviously it's not as much in our control as we like but overall I think the team is in a good way.
"We are improving race by race and we got a lot further than people thought so for sure there are some positives, but today is not the day for that."
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