Vettel: Ferrari has nothing to fear

Sebastian Vettel believes Ferrari has “nothing to fear” in the remaining six races of the 2018 Formula 1 season, despite losing further ground to championship leader Lewis Hamilton in Singapore.

Vettel headed into the Singapore GP weekend as the pre-race favourite around a circuit expected to favour the Scuderia compared to chief rivals Mercedes, but the German could only manage a third-place finish following a disappointing qualifying.

Hamilton capitalised to seal a flawless victory and extend his championship advantage to 40 points in the process with 150 left up for grabs in the remaining rounds of the season. Vettel insists he remains confident about Ferrari’s title chances, citing how the circuits left on the calendar should suit the Italian team’s 2018 challenger.

“We don’t have to fear any track that is coming, our car is working well in every track, so there’s nothing to fear until the end of the season,” Vettel said. “Russia should suit our car, it’s getting better for us every year.”

When asked if he felt he was starting to lose grip on the championship, Vettel replied: “Lewis said he didn’t expect to gain ten points and we didn’t expect to lose ten points. Having had the race that we had there is full justification for losing ten points and obviously we take it.

“There are still a lot of races to go and points to score. I never believed we have the faster car by a large margin like people said, but I know we have a very good car.”

Ferrari appeared to have made a significant step after dominating at Spa following the summer break, but the latest in a series of costly errors from Vettel prevented him from challenged for victory at Monza.

Vettel suggested a “couple of differences” between Mercedes and Ferrari in recent races have proven key to the current situation he finds himself in.

“We started off the season half a second behind and it was crucial to get back, which we managed to. Then we had a bit of rough time,” he explained.

“I think overall the speed is there but I think it’s a match as much in qualifying as in the ace. On Sunday we were a little bit slower and we have to understand that, but also it’s difficult to draw a conclusion because our race was very different.

“There are a couple of differences that are standing out, about Saturday, about Sunday, so there are things that we can learn from the others because they simply did a better job – if they finish ahead of us by half a minute then clearly they did something better than us.”