Sebastian Vettel says Ferrari on course to be 'real' Mercedes threat
Former champion admits Mercedes were too quick for SF15-T in China, but says Ferrari have closed down pace gap since Australia
Tuesday 21 April 2015 15:11, UK
Sebastian Vettel is optimistic Ferrari are on the way to providing a “real challenge” to Mercedes, even though he admits the world champions were too fast for them in China.
Although running the Mercedes drivers close for three quarters of Sunday’s race, Ferrari’s challenge faded following the final pitstops and third-placed Vettel had fallen 20 seconds behind race winner Lewis Hamilton before the Safety Car effectively brought the race to an end with three laps to go.
Unlike the case at Sepang, Mercedes successfully managed to cover Ferrari’s tyre and pitstop strategy and Vettel concedes that whatever they might have tried wouldn’t have toppled the Silver Arrows.
“If we could have beaten them, I wouldn’t be sitting to the left of Lewis [in the press conference], he would sit to the left of me so the answer is probably no and the answer to could we have done something different, I think we tried all we could,” the four-time world champion acknowledged.
“I don’t think it was in range to do a one stop or a three stop. I think both were slower. So the two stop was fairly straightforward for everyone and I think we tried to be as aggressive as we could be. Yeah, so the answer is still no, unfortunately, but as I said, very happy that we were significantly closer than four weeks ago.”
Ferrari’s 20-second deficit to Mercedes in China was 10 seconds closer than they finished to the world champions at the Australian season-opener, while they have also taken half a second out of their deficit over a single qualifying lap.
Vettel was pleased to take the fight to Hmailton and Rosberg on the soft tyre in the first two stints and believes Ferrari are on the path to keep closing the gap over the forthcoming races.
“We were really able to put again some pressure on them, especially in the beginning of the race. Towards the end I think they were just too quick. They were pulling away. Nico had a sequence of really, really quick lap times – so we couldn’t do that – but all-in-all, as I said, closer here, which is great for us, and in front of the other teams.
“If we keep doing that, and keep getting closer, obviously there’s a point where we are some real challenge for these guys, which I’m looking forward to.”
But while never ahead of the Mercedes pair at any stage of the Chinese weekend, Vettel did express mild regret that he didn’t manage to jump Rosberg at the first round of pitstops.
"I think it was very close, especially the first pitstop. I didn’t expect it to maybe be that close, so maybe I should have pushed a bit harder on the out-lap,” Vettel said after closing to within two seconds of Rosberg by pitting two laps earlier.
"Obviously it’s tricky here because you always try to look after the tyres but all-in-all I think it was a very good race for us."
