Sebastian Vettel is not concerned about the early season results that have seen Mercedes secure two consecutive victories while Ferrari have seen two races where only one of their cars saw the chequered flag.
Vettel did not even see the start of the previous round in Bahrain due to an engine failure on the formation lap, but the four-time World Champion feels the team have the potential to have a strong season and take the fight to Mercedes.
Heading into this weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix, Vettel hopes the team have solved the issues that have befallen him and team-mate Kimi Raikkonen during the opening two races of the season, although the issues that cost Vettel in Bahrain were not linked to those that saw Raikkonen retire from the Australian Grand Prix.
“I’ve said many times that this car allows us to ‘play’ more than last year’s car,” said Vettel. “I believe the potential is there, it is only a question of getting all the ingredients together.
“It’s no big secret that this year we didn’t have the start to the season that we had hoped for, but on the other hand, I see no reason to panic. It is still very early in the season and the two failures we had, with Kimi in Australia and with myself in Bahrain, are related to two completely different reasons.
“In the case of my car, we have understood that a small electronic bug caused a big problem. So we had to change the engine for this race, but I am not overly concerned, since we have found the reason for the failure.
“I am confident that we can still take the fight to the Mercedes this year.”
