Sebastian Vettel believes all six drivers amongst the three front-running teams will ‘have a word to say’ in how the World Championships will unfold in 2019, although he hopes that Scuderia Ferrari can find their way to the front.
Vettel and team-mate Charles Leclerc finished fourth and fifth in a lacklustre season-opening Australian Grand Prix, the duo ending more than fifty-seconds away from race winner Valtteri Bottas, but the German feels there is not much to chose between them and those driving for Mercedes-AMG Motorsport and Red Bull Racing.
“I think you have three big teams and all of these three teams have the potential to have a very, very strong year,” Vettel is quoted as saying by Motorsport.com.
“We are looking on ourselves first, and hopefully both of us will be ahead of everybody else, but I think we’re aware it will be very close.”
Vettel feels that despite missing out on points on his Red Bull debut after a qualifying miscalculation from the pit wall, Pierre Gasly will be in the battle at the front alongside himself, Leclerc, Bottas, Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen, and each of the top six will have their moments to upset and take points off the others throughout the remaining twenty races.
“I think Pierre as well got a bit unlucky [in qualifying], I don’t think he was much off the whole weekend compared to Max,” said Vettel. “So his race was pretty much lost from the start.
“But I think all of these six drivers in the end will have a word to say, hopefully for as long as possible for all of us to be in the fight.”
