Sebastian Vettel is sure Ferrari has plenty to improve on their car in an effort to catch Mercedes after a reasonable practice day at the Italian Grand Prix on Friday.
The German claimed third in both sessions at Monza in front of an expectant Tifosi and ended the day less than two-tenths off the pace set by Valtteri Bottas as once again the Scuderia looks capable of competing around a layout many expected the Silver Arrows to dominate on.
With a stronger car in Sunday’s race, the most likely way to beat his main title rivals and end Ferrari’s seven-year wait for a win at their home race, the long run in the afternoon was an important indicator, however, as several drivers hit problems, the four-time world champion admits the disruption made it hard to make a decisive analysis.
“For the first part we had mostly the Soft [tyre] on and I’m not entirely happy because we had a bit of a mixed run with a lot of traffic and the Virtual Safety Car,” he explained. “It wasn’t the ideal long run we were looking for but I guess it was the same for everyone.”
Despite that, Vettel was still sure the team is heading in the right direction, claiming: “I think we’ve done good steps today but I haven’t seen much yet [comparisons]. We will focus on ourselves and aim to improve the car here and there, there is a little bit still missing, we will go from there.”
The unique layout of Monza means engineers have to create a setup especially for this race with smaller wings and reduced drag, as a result, it does take time for drivers their style to cope with the light feeling of the car and finding that comfortable place is something the championship leader is also trying to perfect.
“There are a couple of things that we need to do better like with the car balance and the stability under braking which is important around here to get the confidence,” he said.
“With the low downforce here you need to have the confidence to just throw the car in and stop thinking about it. We are not where I think we can be yet but I think we should be a bit better tomorrow.”
As for Kimi Raikkonen, usually, the oversteery nature of a car at Monza should suit the Finn’s driving style but even he admits the balance is not ideal after claiming fourth in both sessions.
Asked if there was a reoccurrence of his understeer problems, he said: “Not really the front-end, just better parts overall. It wasn’t an easy day. Obviously, some work to be done tomorrow. It’s a normal story.
The 2007 world champion enjoyed a better weekend at Spa last weekend, a circuit he has always excelled at, and commenting on if that form has moved to Monza, he added: “We’ll see tomorrow and Sunday.
“It’s the first two practices, times are times, but we don’t know what people are doing. To be honest, it didn’t feel very easy for me today, so I’m sure we can improve.”
