Sebastian Vettel has taken a pragmatic approach to his qualifying issues after a power unit problem meant he failed to set a lap in Q1 meaning he will start last for Sunday’s Malaysia Grand Prix.
The German had been on the pace all weekend and was favourite for pole position given the inconsistencies of title rivals Mercedes.
“It’s part of motor racing, Vettel told Sky Sports. “I didn’t do anything today, this afternoon especially so it’s not something to feel that much about. For sure it’s not ideal, it’s not what you want, especially on a day when you feel you’ve got it in you, you’ve got it in the car. But unfortunately we won’t be able to prove that. I hope that Kimi will.
“Then we go for tomorrow, we save some tyres. So there are some positives given that it’s a pretty bad day, but the race is tomorrow.
“We need to see now what was the problem, but we managed to do the change successfully in time. We thought we would be late but we made it, so the guys worked a miracle today, worked like crazy.”
“It was like in the Cars movie where there are little Luigi’s going round. They fixed it up so quickly, so it’s a shame we couldn’t get out. It’s a shame I couldn’t get it where it belonged for them.”
Ferrari could potentially replace numerous components within Vettel’s power unit without reprisal of a taking any further penalties on the grid, removing the car from parc ferme is also an option to start the race from the pitlane.
