Sebastian Vettel feels he is driving in an “unnatural” manner as he tries to get a handle on Ferrari’s SF90, in the wake of an underwhelming start to 2019.
Vettel set the quickest time of pre-season testing and has repeatedly expressed his belief that Ferrari has a strong package, but the team has yet to take a win this year.
It has left Vettel 35 points behind title leader Valtteri Bottas while Ferrari is 74 points adrift of Mercedes, which has started the year with a run of 1-2 finishes.
“We need stronger pace, simple as that,” said Vettel after finishing third in Azerbaijan.
“We need to be faster. I’m convinced we’ve been, partly this weekend, looking very strong but overall not strong enough.
“So, it seems that for us it’s more of a conscious effort to get the car in the right window, whereas maybe for them it seems to click a little bit easier. Especially a place like around here, you need the confidence in the car. I’m not yet there.
“I can feel that I’m not driving at my best because simply the car does not answer or does not respond the way I like. And then I think it’s unnatural. I think everybody’s been there. I think all drivers know that sort of feeling: when it’s not there, then your judgement is normally right, to not go there because you end up losing the car.
“So, yeah, I seem to be more sensitive at the first races than at the test.
“The test was really good but that’s a long time ago now. We need to look forward and improve the way we handle things, the way we work to just get faster. That’s it.”
When Vettel’s personal feelings on the car were put to team-mate Charles Leclerc, who topped practice but came home only fifth after a Q2 crash, he said: At the moment I’m not so unhappy with the car.
“I think we maybe need to work a little bit on our race.
“I think in qualifying the car felt amazing. In the race, a little bit more balance problems, but small issues, and I’m pretty sure that if we work on it, we’ll get over it.”
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