Charles Leclerc fears it will be “quite difficult” for Ferrari to be at Mercedes’ level, but stressed the team has not yet thrown in the towel on its 2019 hopes in Formula 1.
Ferrari and Mercedes appeared equally matched through pre-season testing but the Italian marque has trailed its opponent through 2019.
Mercedes has taken victory at all eight races, giving it a 140-point advantage over Ferrari, which has only challenged for a win at two events.
Mercedes dominated last weekend at Paul Ricard, finishing 1-2 in each practice session, qualifying and the race.
“I think at the moment it’s quite difficult, they seem very quick,” said Leclerc on Mercedes.
“They were extremely quick at Paul Ricard, especially in the race pace so I think we are focusing on ourselves and trying to do the best job possible but to be honest, it’s quite difficult to be at their level.
“We will believe it [the title ambitions] until the end but of course we are all aware that the gap is quite big and it’s going to be very difficult to catch up.
“But we won’t give up until its mathematically impossible so we will give it everything. Of course the gap is big.”
Sebastian Vettel added: “I look forward. I know this team is strong, I know that there is plenty of ideas, plenty of things that we are planning to update our car with, and we hope that they all work and obviously we can turn it around.
“I’m not stupid either, though, I know time doesn’t help.
“Time and races passing where we’re not in front of Mercedes doesn’t help. But as I said I’m an optimist and look forward to racing and I believe on Sunday anything can happen. We will see what happens this Sunday for a start.
“I think we have some bits to try on Friday to learn a little bit more also from last weekend and then we’ll see where we’ll be this weekend and where it will take us for the next races.”
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