Sebastian Vettel has denied relations with Ferrari are falling apart following a difficult two weeks at Silverstone.
After a strong performance in Hungary, the four-time world champion scored just one point in the UK as he struggled for confidence using the low downforce setup the Scuderia brought to British circuit.
The situation wasn’t helped by other various factors, including unreliability and niggles like loose pedals in practice, and then in last Sunday’s race Vettel told Ferrari they had “messed up” after using a strategy that brought him out in traffic.
Ahead of this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona, it was put to Vettel that his outburst was a sign of growing tensions between himself and his team but…
“I don’t agree with the statement. I think we are trying to do everything we can,” he was quoted by Sky Sports.
“It’s never relaxed if things don’t go your way or it goes wrong. Obviously, if you judge the emotions right after the race then during the race, I don’t think it’s a fair reflection of what’s actually going on.”
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Vettel’s comments at Silverstone though was far from the first time he had questioned Ferrari’s strategy, but he also denied there was any issues with trust.
“I’m not trying to get into any of this, I’m just trying to do my job,” he said.
“At the moment it’s not plain sailing or calm it’s a rather rough sea, but I have to do the best I can which is staying focused, being fairly open-minded and trying to tackle it.”
“[I’m] not frustrated, even though I have known better times,” the 33-year-old added.
“At the moment I would think so. If not, I would say otherwise,” Vettel claimed.
“I didn’t have great weekends at Silverstone — normally a track I really like. I didn’t get into a great feeling with the car and wasn’t able to extract as much as Charles was for whatever reasons.
“There’s not much I can do other than doing my job and working together with the guys around and my car to make sure we get the best package together.”
Asked if he felt the SF1000 was better-suited to Leclerc though, Vettel said: “No, I don’t think so.
“It sounds nice for you guys to talk about it but in the end, we are used to driving whatever we get and try to do the best out of it.
“Normally we are all good at it, some maybe a bit more than others but I think historically this has been a strength rather than a weakness. That’s why it’s a bit confusing.
“But then again, sometimes you don’t get all the answers you like. In a sport where you usually get a lot of answers and you measure so much stuff, there’s certain things that you still can’t measure. So we’ll see how it goes this weekend.”