Vettel downplays Ferrari ‘favourites’ tag in Mexico

Sebastian Vettel has downplayed Ferrari’s chances at this weekend’s Formula 1 Mexican Grand Prix after being billed as the pre-race favourites.

Ferrari is tipped to be the team to beat at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez following a resurgence of form since the summer break. The Scuderia has won three of the last five races and claimed the last five pole positions on offer, with Vettel heading a Ferrari front-row lockout last time out at Suzuka.

Ferrari’s chief rival Mercedes is anticipating to struggle to match the Italian squad on the high-altitude circuit’s long straights, which are expected to favour the team’s SF90 package given its current supremacy in engine performance. 

Asked if he feels Ferrari head into the weekend as favourites, Vettel replied: “I don’t know. So-so.

“People look at the track and they look at the straight line. I think we’ve been strong on the straight lines in recent races, but there’s quite a couple of corners.

“Plus here, it’s not one of the tracks where efficiency matters so much. We do have quite an efficient car, so maybe we can’t use that to our advantage, so we will see how we manage around the corner sections, where some of these type of corners have been our weakness, so we’ll see.

“I feel confident, I think we have a good package,” he added.

“There’s parts of the track that should be in our favour, other parts where it might be a bit more difficult but we will see how it works out. The weather could be a bit difficult this weekend, so we see what happens.”

Ferrari has not won in Mexico since Alain Prost’s victory in 1990. A second and third place finish in last year’s race acted as the team's best result since the venue returned to the calendar in 2015.