Sebastian Vettel says despite a winless start to the season Ferrari’s 2019 car is “not as bad as it looks”.
The German’s second place finish in Monaco was the team’s best result of the campaign, although it failed to prevent rivals Mercedes continuing its 100% win record.
Vettel regained third in the drivers’ standings with the result but remains 55 points adrift of championship leader Lewis Hamilton after the first six races.
Ferrari has come under fire for its poor start after showing encouraging form in pre-season testing, but Vettel believes the SF90’s performance is nothing for the team to be majorly concerned about.
“Our straight line speed is really good. It’s just because overall we are lacking downforce, a weakness that we know,” Vettel said.
“I don’t think the car is as bad as it looks. The results should be better here and there but it’s very difficult for us to get the car in the window where it is happy.
“Certainly when we get it in there we’re more competitive but still a way from where we want to be. That’s really the key lesson: we need to focus on trying to get the car short-term more in that window.
“Looking forward for the next three, four, five races, obviously make sure we improve the car, put more grip onto the car so that we can go faster, simple as that.
“But that guy seems to hide fairly well. I don’t know exactly where he is right now, so if you find him, or if you’ve got his number, that grip guy, but we’ve been looking for him for a while.
“I don’t think there are any secrets we will be able to unveil. As usual, attention to detail and a lot hard work is the only way to get us up.”
Vettel feels Pirelli’s 2019 tyres have been a critical detriment to Ferrari’s performance this season but the four-time champion insists he’s been partly to blame for its on-track struggles.
“I’m part of the team so I don’t put myself above [it],” he explained.
“I’ve had some difficult moments this year where I’m fighting the car, I’m not really entering yet to the level where I feel a lot more comfortable and I feel comfortable to squeeze out more performance from the car.
“But I think it’s linked to the fact that we struggle to put our car in the right window. Once it is there, it is feeling better and you’re able to build up on that but it doesn’t happen very often but it’s a combination of things.
“I think first we are lacking overall performance. That overall performance would help us probably to put the tyres more often in the window they would like to be in.
“It’s not a secret, by now, after six races that these tyres this year seem a bit more critical to get exactly into that window.”
