Vettel: Mercedes are downplaying their own car

Sebastian Vettel believes that Mercedes have been downplaying the potential of their own car in order to make it seem like the team is closer to Ferrari, thus making their dominance seem more impressive, saying the gap between car and his Ferrari is "not nice".

Mercedes are leading both the constructors' championship and the drivers' championship through Lewis Hamilton, with Ferrari and Vettel in behind in each ranking.

The Silver Arrows have reiterated continuously this campaign that their car is on par with that of Ferrari, but Vettel thinks such statements aren't true.

“I think it’s always been very close,” said Vettel of the teams.

“I think the other side [Mercedes] have been very good at communicating that they have an inferior car but I don’t think that was the case. We will see. We have a strong car, we know that, a car that we can work with.

"You can see that we’ve pulled a small qualifying advantage to Ferrari in recent races and we’re hoping that we can carry that through to the remaining races this year.”

Vettel believes that Ferrari do have a strong, competitive car, but recognises the current gap between themselves and Mercedes even if it can, on occasion, be very slight.

“Obviously it’s not nice to have a gap like that," the German continued.

"But then I think I’ve been way more realistic about the gaps in general and the performance between the cars. I know we have a great car, I’m not doubting that. But I believe their car is very strong too and has been very strong.

“I think it’s been a reasonable match. There’s been qualifying sessions where we’ve had the upper hand by a tiny bit and they had the upper hand by a little bit. Sometimes also a bit more like [Russia] or France or other races. I think we have a good car, we need to make sure we keep improving it.”

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