29 | 11 | 2019 A lot of work on final Friday of season

This Friday at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was a busy one for the Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow team and its drivers. Over the two free practice sessions which took place in the afternoon and evening, Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel worked solidly on preparing for qualifying and the race, both of them making a mistake each, although it did not have a significant effect on the day’s programme.

FP1. Sebastian and Charles ended the first session in fifth and seventh places respectively. They began on the soft tyres before switching to the medium to evaluate its potential behaviour in the first stint of the race. Vettel posted a 1’38”906 and Charles did a 1’39”249. When there was just a minute remaining, the German spun his car into the barriers at turn 19 which slightly damaged his SF90.

FP2. Before the second session, which started in daylight and ended under the floodlights that turn night into day at the Yas Marina circuit, the gearbox was changed on Sebastian’s car, but this was penalty-free as the one taken off was not his race gearbox. The green light came on at 17 (14 CET), exactly the same time at which qualifying starts tomorrow. It was a busy 90 minutes. Both drivers began with qualifying runs and the Monegasque was immediately in trouble, when, at the same turn 19, he brushed the barriers with both right hand wheels. A check revealed no damage was done and so he was able to go back out, with nothing more than a tyre change. Leclerc was quickest of the two Scuderia drivers, posting a 1’36”642, slightly better than Vettel’s 1’36”691.

Long run. In the second part of the session, the focus shifted to long run work for the race. Sebastian tackled his on medium tyres and Charles had the hardest ones.

Sebastian Vettel #5
“In the medium low speed corners of this circuit we are still lacking speed, compared to our rivals.
Sector three is the one that really hurts us, we are struggling with the tyres getting hot, and the car is difficult to drive. Of course when you drive on the limit, any car will be more difficult to drive, and this what we are here to do. We will try our best to have a solid weekend, we can improve the set up and then see if we can fight well on Sunday.
Today I hit the barriers: I was caught out a bit by surprise as I didn’t expect to spin. I knew going in that I would have to catch the rear, but it didn’t quite work, which was a bit unfortunate, but the only damage was to the rim.”

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Photo © www.motorsportpics.de | Jerry Andre

31 | 10 | 2019 Changing opinions of critics "a nightmare" | Sebastian in interview with Roberto Chinchero, motorsport.com

 WINTER TEST. I REMEMBER QUITE OPTIMISTIC ATMOSPHERE IN THE TEAM

Yeah, it was great.

WHEN AND WHERE YOU UNDERSTOOD THAT PROBABLY THE TARGET TO WIN THE CHAMPIONSHIP WAS NOT REACHABLE?
Well, I think looking back we had an amazing first day, and the car was really good, and also comparing to the others the first week was incredible. So you know we were staying quite... it was more outside that everybody got sort of enthusiastic, we were staying quite calm. I think the second week was already more realistic, where we were match. So I think others cleaned up their cars a lot between those two weeks, especially you looking at Mercedes and Red Bull. And then to be honest it was a surprise coming to Australia and see that we were behind. Then I think the first couple of races it was not so clear, because we came to Bahrain and we were quite strong. Then we went to... I don't know, China? And again we were quite weak, so it was surprising to have this up and down. But I think after three-four five races it was more and more apparent, especially then going back to Barcelona I think it was quite clear, that we were just not quick enough. So at that point you're not giving up, but you realise that, you know, you're not in a position you want to be. And you fight yourself first. Because you're too far away to fight the others. Or fight Mercedes, which, you know... they just got stronger and stronger race by race, where we were trying to find our firm form first, and once we found [it] we realised it's behind, so yeah, I think then with the European races and just the fact that we were not able overnight sort of to turn things around it was quite clear, that it is going to be very difficult.

Read more: 31 | 10 | 2019 Changing opinions of critics "a nightmare" | Sebastian in interview with Roberto...