Sebastian Vettel says he “doesn’t care” for onlookers raising suspicions over Ferrari’s engine performance, in the wake of comments made in Austin.
Ferrari has had a straight-line speed advantage for much of 2019, most prominently in qualifying, and sealed six straight poles prior to the United States Grand Prix.
Prior to the event the FIA issued a technical directive clarifying a potential loophole regarding the electrical sensors monitoring fuel flow rate, which rivals believed partly explained Ferrari’s engine advantage.
Following the race in Austin, in which Ferrari finished an off-the-pace fourth with Charles Leclerc, Max Verstappen made a direct link to their performance, prompting an angry response from Ferrari.
Ahead of the Brazilian Grand Prix, Vettel explained that “On top of the fact that we have a performing engine, we also have a car that I think is very efficient.
“Maybe to some, in comparison to Mercedes and Red Bull, they have more downforce than us but maybe they created [it] in a bit dirtier way so you can always argue what is the better package but yeah, I think it’s a good sign.
“Should we have the strongest engine, which I don’t know the other manufacturers' power figures, that’s a great achievement by us, by our engine department.
“For the last five years we had Mercedes having the strongest engine. But since now for a couple of months we are ahead, then hopefully it stays like that for the next five years and I don’t care what people think or say.
“The best way to answer [critics] in a way is to probably go back to normal.
“We are not proud of how we performed in Austin on Sunday. After Saturday, nobody had the need to complain.
“Sunday I think we struggled probably with more than one thing, conditions, tyres, setup, which are things we need to work on. But calling it that far I think is not right. But again, live and let live.
“If that’s what he [Verstappen] thinks, that’s what he thinks. If next week he thinks something different, then in the end we don’t care so much.”
Leclerc used an older-specification engine in Austin, following an FP3 failure, while Vettel’s race lasted just eight laps due to a suspension failure.
Vettel explained that Ferrari believes his sudden failure was caused by “the bump, so by the track.
“Obviously we’ve been racing around the track the whole weekend but I think in the race it was just – I think probably we got lucky before that we didn’t see any damage, so unlucky in the race with that one lap, or one spike, it looked like it was too much.”
