17 | 03 | 2019 GP Australien | Sebastian fourth in Australia

Melbourne – It was a complicated Australian Grand Prix for Scuderia Ferrari, although it still managed to pick up 22 points that will be important for the championship, with both its SF90s seeing the checkered flag. However, the team had to accept that it was not in condition to fight for the podium positions. Sebastian Vettel finished fourth and Charles Leclerc, on his race debut with the Scuderia, was fifth.

Sebastian and Charles both got good starts, with Vettel able to get alongside Hamilton’s Mercedes. Leclerc got past Verstappen in the Red Bull but he was forced to put two wheels on the grass at the first corner and had to give back the position to the Dutchman.

In the early stages, Sebastian was able to keep a good pace, while Charles made a mistake on lap 8 and lost ground to Verstappen. On lap 14, Vettel pitted, switching from the Soft to the Medium tyres, while Leclerc stayed out until lap 28, when he fitted the Hard compound tyres.

In the second stint, the car on Medium tyres didn’t perform as expected and so Sebastian had to manage the rubber for the rest of the race. Charles could run a good pace and in the final stages closed on Vettel, but the team decided the drivers should hold position, given that the cars ahead were too far away and so an assault on the podium was unlikely. The next race takes place in Bahrain in a fortnight’s time.

Sebastian Vettel #5
“We were not happy with the car the whole weekend but today we struggled a lot. The reason I was so slow in the race was mostly due to the fact that the car could not find enough grip with the medium tyres that we fitted at the pit stop. As a team, we still got a decent amount of points from our fourth and fifth places, but this is not the result we were aiming for just a few weeks ago. So in the coming days, we will analyse the data in detail so as to be ready for the next race, which is not far away now. I’m sure that looking at all the information we have gathered here will give us a better understanding, but today, the result we got was the best we could do."

   Bildergalerie

Foto © www.motorsportpics.de | Jerry Andre

16 | 03 | 2019 GP Australien | Second and third row for Ferrari

Melbourne – Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc will start the Australian Grand Prix from the second and third row of the grid respectively. It was not the easiest of sessions for the Scuderia and it ended with Sebastian third fastest and Charles fifth. The race gets underway at 16h10 local time (06h10 CET.)

Q1. In the first part of qualifying, Vettel was the only driver to go through to the next part on Medium tyres in a time of 1’22”885. Leclerc did a 1’23”326 which led him to go for a set of Softs, producing a 1’22” 0217 to easily get through to the next part.

Q2. Only Softs were used and Sebastian posted a 1’21”912 and Charles a 1’21”739 which saw them comfortably make it to the final ten minutes to decide the top ten places on the grid.

Q3. In the final shoot-out, Sebastian soon posted a lap in 1’21”250, good enough for third place. The German managed to improve on his second run, getting down to 1’21”190. On his first run, Charles did a 1’21”442, which would be his best time, as the number 16 driver made a mistake at the wheel of his SF90 on his second run and had to settle for fifth on the grid.

Sebastian Vettel #5

“Starting tomorrow’s race from third is not too bad and the car is ok, even if it’s not exactly how we would like it and we are not as fast as we wanted to be. But we’ll start from there and see what we can bring home. This track is unique and conditions are different to what we experienced in testing. We have definitely improved the car overnight, but obviously not enough to be in front of everyone. In tomorrow’s race we’ll have time to understand the car further. We will race as hard as we can and see where that takes us. After all, we are just 16 metres behind pole position”.

   Bildergalerie

Foto © www.motorsportpics.de | Jerry Andre

15 | 03 | 2019 GP Australien | A busy day

 Melbourne – It was a busy Friday for Scuderia Ferrari at the Albert Park circuit, which is hosting the first race of the 2019 Formula 1 season. During the three hours of free practice, Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc carried out a full evaluation programme on their SF90s.

The drivers worked on set-up and tyres to check the handling of the car in much warmer conditions than those experienced at the Barcelona tests. Sebastian and Charles then ran with different fuel loads to simulate different phases of the race.

In the first session, both drivers did 18 laps: Vettel was second fastest in 1’23”637, fractionally quicker than Leclerc’s 1’23”673. In the second session, both men competed 35 laps; the German was fifth quickest in 1’23”473 and the Monegasque was ninth in 1’23”754.

The third and final free practice session takes place tomorrow afternoon at 14:00 local time (04:00 CET) with the first qualifying session of the year getting underway at 17:00 (07:00 CET.) The Australian Grand Prix starts on Sunday at 16h10 (06:10 CET.).

Sebastian Vettel #5

“It was fun today. Maybe we were not as fast as possibly we wanted to be and could have been, but it’s Friday, after all, so it doesn’t really matter. I am sure that by December 1st no one will remember how fast we were on March 15! I am still lacking a bit of confidence, it was a tricky day for us, as it probably was for everyone. We are not yet where we would like to be, not so much in terms of lap time but more in terms of car feel and handling. We didn’t really get into the groove and into the rhythm, which is quite important round here on such a bumpy but I think that tomorrow will be a better day and if we can get that confidence back, then there’s a lot of lap time in that. There were bits of the session that were really, really good and we can build on, so now it’s all about stringing it together and having a better day tomorrow. The night is long and our engineers are very smart. I am relaxed”.

   Bildergalerie

Foto © www.motorsportpics.de | Jerry Andre