Sebastian Vettel has played down Ferrari expectations for the Monaco Grand Prix.
The Italian team has a poor recent record on the streets of Monte Carlo with just one victory since 2001, coming via the German in 2017.
This season has also seen the Scuderia fall short in their attempts to challenge Mercedes and Vettel fears the main reason for that will be exposed this weekend.
“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,” he told RaceFans.
The outlet confirmed that by revealing the best sector three times in Barcelona, made up mostly of slow corners, and showed Ferrari third fastest and six-tenths slower than Mercedes.
As a result, Vettel is hoping for some unique Monaco factors to intervene.
“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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Asked about the current handling issues of the Ferrari chassis, team boss Mattia Binotto denied it was a “disaster” and does believe answers are coming.
“Last week’s testing in Barcelona and analysis carried out confirmed just how much this year’s tyres, which are very different to 2018, require different mechanical and aerodynamic settings to work properly,” he explained via Crash.net in Monaco.
“We are already working in Maranello on evaluating new concepts, as well as bringing some initial further updates here.”