Vettel still “can’t put an answer to” Ferrari F1 car struggles

Sebastian Vettel says there are still some elements of his Ferrari Formula 1 car he “can’t really put an answer to” after his struggles continued in Spanish Grand Prix qualifying.

The four-time world champion endured his latest difficult qualifying session for Ferrari and was knocked out in Q2 as he qualified 11th, having missed out on a spot in the top-10 shootout by just 0.002s.

Ferrari swapped Vettel’s chassis ahead of this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix in a bid to help turnaround his recent slump in form, but the German says he is still struggling to get on top of his 2020 car.

"The first sector was OK, but then in the middle sector the car started feel more and more nervous," Vettel explained.

"I struggled in particular in Turn 7, losing the rear halfway, so it was difficult to judge how much speed to carry in. Also Turn 5 was very tricky for me this afternoon.

"That's the middle sector, and in the last sector, it got better towards the end, but still very tricky to find the right balance.

"It was one of the better sessions this weekend, but still obviously not good enough.”

Asked if the chassis change had helped improve his SF1000 car, Vettel replied: “It’s up and down to be honest. There are still some things I can't really put an answer to.

"But I'm trying to do everything I can, and ignore all the things that might not be right, and do the best that I can.

“That's all I can do at the moment.”

In contrast, Vettel’s Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc did advance through to the final qualifying session but could only set the ninth-fastest time.

Leclerc explained that he was also struggling with his Ferrari car throughout qualifying as the Monegasque was outpaced by the Red Bull drivers, both Racing Points and the two McLarens.

"I was just not happy with the car today," Leclerc said.

"This morning I was, the beginning of qualifying was OK, but then it fell out, session after session in qualifying. It just didn't have enough front end to rotate the car.

“We've lost quite a bit of time because of this, so now we need to understand why did this happen.

"It's something that we regularly have with this car, struggling with the front in mid-corner. Today, there were not really any solutions."