After failing to close the gap to Mercedes in Spain, Ferrari’s season is unlikely to improve in Monaco according to Sebastian Vettel.
Speaking after the Spanish Grand Prix, Vettel said the team could not match Mercedes in the slow corners in the final sector at the Circuit de Catalunya, which pointed to a challenging weekend ahead.“It will be difficult for us because we are losing time in low-speed corners, we are struggling with those type of corners to put enough grip into the tyre and Monaco is all about that.”
Mercedes’ best time through the final sector in Spain was 25.878 seconds. Red Bull, last year’s Monaco Grand Prix winners, were next-quickest at 26.322s and Ferrari were six tenths back on 26.513s.
Ferrari were initially expected to have a substantial speed advantage following pre-season testing. But the team has struggled to find a setup that delivers qualifying or race pace at every track bar Bahrain.
Vettel is pinning his hopes on Monaco being a track where a driver can make a greater contribution to the team’s overall performance.
“It’s Monaco so the driver can make a difference,” he said. “You need to have the right set-up and everything so there are a lot of things that in Monaco could be mixed.”
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Kurik
22nd May 2019, 8:23
First race if the season I am not gonna watch live and don’t feel anyway about it. Hopefully there will be something to the highlights when I check it out Monday. Think merc / redbull got this one though.
RB13
22nd May 2019, 16:15
Ironically the weekend starts a day early and when it comes to Monaco, the main event also takes place a day early. Saturday is always worth watching. 👌
Paul D
22nd May 2019, 8:29
Not sure I can even be bothered to watch highlights (since they will consist of lap #1, shunts/failures and the winner crossing the line). I’ll check the results on the news.
I will watch qualy though.
Panagiotis Papatheodorou (@panagiotism-papatheodorou)
22nd May 2019, 8:53
They were losing like 7 tenths in the final sector of Spain in quali. I think they will be like a second behind Merc given the aero they have shown to have so far.
Nitzo (@webtel)
22nd May 2019, 10:04
I think ‘difficult’ will be an understatement to the way they are going to perform this weekend. Not actually looking forward this race but a few incidents could result in some drama.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
22nd May 2019, 10:23
@hazelsouthwell – are you at Monaco this weekend? Or are you also covering F1? This is the second Monaco GP article you’ve bylined.
Jay Menon (@jaymenon10)
22nd May 2019, 10:24
Come on Maxy.. Stick it on pole!
johnnybravo
22nd May 2019, 10:35
Hard to do that when he sticks it in the barrier!
Stephen Crowsen (@drycrust)
22nd May 2019, 10:42
The most important part isn’t Ferrari trying to match Mercedes, but to be beating Red Bull. Currently they are beating RBR very well, but I’m not sure RBR can be trusted to have one of their drivers limp home at every remaining race this season.
Luke S (@joeypropane)
22nd May 2019, 11:19
Beating RBR very well? Max is ahead of both Ferrari drivers in the standings, and the Ferrari pitwall is showing absolutely no sign of learning to maximise strategy or take risks like Mercedes and RBR do.
L (@lebz)
22nd May 2019, 13:47
Agreed, Ferrari are going to lose to Red Bull if they try and focus on Mercedes this making more mistakes. Mercedes are way out of reach at this point in time. The only competition they can tame right now is RedBull[Max]
Jelle van der Meer (@)
22nd May 2019, 11:29
So funny: “Vettel is pinning his hopes on Monaco being a track where a driver can make a greater contribution to the team’s overall performance.”
Based on what we have seen so far this year – that is NOT going to help Vettel it likely will Leclerc unless Ferrari imposes team orders again.
David BR (@david-br)
22nd May 2019, 12:18
@jelle-van-der-meer If Leclerc can avoid what happened at Baku qualifying, Vettel’s biggest immediate problem is indeed likely to be his team mate. Or his own team, given how Ferrari took yet another poor decision in Baku (not switching tyres like everyone else in Q2).
Pjotr (@pietkoster)
22nd May 2019, 14:33
Monaco is always a gamble, let us hope that somebody can defeat the Mercedes at last. Maybe Leclerc or Max. Doesn´t matter, give us some spectacle.
RB13
22nd May 2019, 16:18
Leclerc might well stick it in the wall again trying to over drive around Ferrari’s aero defecit.
The front end on the red cars has looked very vague all season and that’s got to a big worry for Monaco.