Scuderia Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel was third and fourth fastest in today’s Spanish Grand Prix Free Practice sessions and believes that he and the team can be stronger tomorrow in qualifying.
It was a mixed day for several drivers, with a combination of the resurfaced Circuit de Barcelona Catalunya and the strong gusts of wind making conditions challenging, and as a result, the sessions were plagued with yellow flags and crashes. Overall, however, Vettel was pleased with the car itself, even though at times it did not look as fast as the Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport team or the Aston Martin Red Bull Racing cars.
The tyres also played an interesting role in how the day of practice panned out, surprisingly with the soft compound tyre looking quicker than the supersoft compound.
“Everything we put on the car seems to work and that’s important,” he commented.
“I think the biggest change that has been made is on the tires, which seem to be quite different. I don’t think they are better than before. As for the changes you saw with the rearview mirrors, it is no big deal. Before, it was quite difficult for us to look at the cars behind. Now they are in a better position and I can see a little bit better below the rear wing.”
Vettel is hoping to be in a similar situation tomorrow as he was when he took pole in Baku last time out, where he was able to extract the maximum from the car when it was needed most.
“If you trust your car, there is no reason to try to push over the limit at this stage. Let’s hope we have the same trust as in Baku where I could get everything out of the car when I had to. We can still work on the car and I think we should be stronger tomorrow.”
