Sebastian Vettel ultimately feels Pirelli Motorsport made the right to bring updated tyre compounds with thinner treads to the Spanish Grand Prix, believing his Scuderia Ferrari team would have been even worse off had they brought the standard tyres to the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
The German was able to run back-to-back tests with both the usual tyre and the thinner tread tyre on the first day of the post-Spanish Grand Prix on Tuesday, and after initially questioning the decision of Pirelli to bring the different tyre last weekend, the test underlined just why the tyre manufacturer did it, and it was ultimately Ferrari who were at fault for not getting the same kind of tyre life out of them as other teams achieved.
The same thinner treads will be used in both the French and British Grand Prix later this season in a bid to prevent overheating issues on what will be freshly re-laid tarmac at both venues, but Vettel hopes Ferrari will be able to learn from their exploits in Spain to have better races at the Circuit Paul Ricard and Silverstone.
“I think it’s pretty straightforward,” Vettel is quoted as saying by Motorsport.com. “Obviously normally you don’t get the chance to revisit this kind of decisions that are made, but I think we did now with the day that we had today, and I think the result is that, if we had the normal tyres on Sunday, we’d probably even be worse off.
“So I think it was the correct call, and it was our fault not to have the same tyre wear or life as other people.”
Vettel will hand over the driving duties to test driver Antonio Giovanazzi for Wednesday’s second and final day of the test in Spain, but he feels it was important to test on Tuesday to try and understand just why Ferrari was not as quick as their rivals on race day in Spain last Sunday.
“It’s good to have the test, to be honest, to be able to compare,” said the German. “And I think we have some ideas, and now it’s up to us to turn those ideas into reality.
“[The test] was quite good in terms of timing. It was a poor weekend for us, we were not quick enough. I think more than not quick enough we were obviously struggling to make the tyres last.
“Those two things are linked. But it was good to have the possibility to revisit, and now it’s up to us to take action.”
