Vettel not yet confident in Ferrari car

Sebastian Vettel says he is not yet fully confident in the new Ferrari car for the 2019 Formula 1 season despite the pace on show, particularly in pre-season. The German claimed a podium spot in Azerbaijan, but it came in another weekend when Mercedes showed their dominance.

The four-time world champion is having a slow start to the new campaign, and hasn’t finished in the top two in any of the opening four races, including in Baku on Sunday.

Vettel: Ferrari aren't favourites any moreRead more

The disappointing results have came even with the Scuderia displaying extreme pace on straights, with other car issues affecting performance.

Vettel admits he isn’t totally comfortable dealing with the car yet.

“Well, we need stronger pace, simple as that,” he said after the race 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.”

He reckons that Ferrari can no longer point back to their impressive pace in pre-season testing, as they need to improve in the here and now.

“The test was really good but that’s a long time ago now,” he added.

“We need to look forward and improve the way we handle things, the way we work to just get faster. That’s it.”

Vettel is currently in third place in the driver’s championship, 34 points adrift of Lewis Hamilton in second.

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