German finished over half a minute behind race winner Rosberg in Barcelona, but says Scuderia have more improvements on the way; Raikkonen unable to pass Williams' Valtteri Bottas and ends up fifth
Thursday 14 May 2015 12:38, UK
Sebastian Vettel has voiced his unhappiness after Ferrari were thrashed in Spain by Mercedes but has insisted he can still win the world championship.
Despite the introduction of a raft of new parts on his SF15-T car this weekend in Barcelona, Vettel crossed the line over 45 seconds behind race victor Nico Rosberg on what was a chastening weekend for the revitalised Scuderia.
"Not happy with the gap, not happy at all,” concluded Vettel. “They had an easy race at the front.”
Kimi Raikkonen, who finished fifth behind Williams’ Valtteri Bottas, was sufficiently unconvinced by some of the new upgrades to remove some of them from his car after Friday practice and Ferrari’s hopes of catching Mercedes this year may now be dependent on the deployment of their remaining engine tokens.
It’s believed that a major engine upgrade is in the pipeline for Canada, but Vettel still believes Ferrari can be more competitive in Monaco at the end of this month.
"I'm pretty confident we will get closer again - hopefully in two weeks' time. I'm confident in the next two or three races we should be stepping up our game again as a team,” the four-time title winner said.
"I don’t think this is the reality. If you look at the last four races, that is the reality. You have to be accept that there are some tracks where you will be a bit more competitive than others and it appears that for some reason we were not that competitive here.”
Vettel now trails world championship leader Lewis Hamilton by 31 points, but is refusing to rule out a title bid.
"I think I'm in the fight. We are able to improve our car. There are some steps coming,” he added. “Obviously our opponent is the favourite for the rest of the year but the way to look at it isn’t that Mercedes are the strongest but that Ferrari managed to close the gap more than anyone else. We are pushing to our maximum."
Team-mate Raikkonen was left similarly optimistic that Ferrari would come again in future races, suggesting the remaining advantages that Mercedes' car has over the SF15-T were exacerbated by the tricky weekend-long conditions experienced by all at aerodynamically-demanding Barcelona.
"They were further away than us than in some races, but the whole weekend has been difficult and we know that they have probably a bit more downforce than us and more power so with conditions like this it can easily make a big difference,” Raikkonen said.
"It was one of those weekends, but it’s one race out of many so we have to see how the cars are at the next races. We have good things to come in the car. We know where we have to improve.”
Although Raikkonen made up for some of his latest qualifying disappointment by picking off both Toro Rosso cars on Sunday's opening lap, he failed to progress further than fifth thereafter with Bottas proving an immovable object.
Despite the advantage of the quicker medium tyres for the final stint, the Ferrari could find no way past and had to settle for fifth.
"We tried to do our best and in the end we caught up with the Williams but he was so difficult to overtake," Raikkonen explained. "They [the tyres] were fine. I could catch him quite easily but once I got close to him somehow our car suffers a lot following them more than other cars. Plus, they have more top speed, so it makes it very difficult to get past them.
"It’s been a difficult weekend in many ways, but not a disaster in the end. It wasn’t what we want, but it could have been worse."
Although Raikkonen was beaten by Bottas, Ferrari have consolidated their second place over Williams in the Constructors' Championship, although the Scuderia now trail Mercedes by 70 points.
