Vettel insists Ferrari can match Red Bull in Mexico

Sebastian Vettel believes Ferrari have main enough gains in the second half of the season that they could potentially compete with the favourites to win the Mexican Grand Prix, Red Bull.

The Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez is at high altitude, and suits the car of Red Bull due to teams being forced to run maximum downforce levels. They are going for their third victory in a row in Mexico after Max Verstappen won in 2017 and 2018.

Vettel, who finished second to the Dutchman a year ago, thinks Ferrari can close the performance gap in the 2019 edition of the race.

“Obviously racing at altitude has an impact on how the car feels,” Vettel said when previewing the GP.

“We are racing with maximum downforce level in terms of car setup, but, since we are racing so high above sea level, the air is very thin and the cars actually produce very little downforce.

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“On the long straight, I think we see the fastest top speeds of the season, which makes it difficult to manage the corners, because we’ve got so little downforce physically on the car.

“The car is moving around a lot and it’s difficult to get the tyres to work, in fact it’s hard to get the whole car to work and to get the right feel from it. It’s a relatively short lap but not an easy one.

“Over the past couple of years, we have been on an upward trend in Mexico, although Red Bull has been the team to beat. But I think the gaps between us are getting smaller, so let’s see how we get on this year.”

The German has endured a disappointing campaign so far, having collected just one victory in Singapore. He is currently fifth in the drivers’ championship behind Verstappen, team-mate Charles Leclerc, Valtteri Bottas, and Lewis Hamilton.

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