Vettel trusts Ferrari giving him same F1 car as Leclerc

Sebastian Vettel says he trusts that Ferrari is providing him with equal machinery to Formula 1 teammate Charles Leclerc.

The four-time world champion endured another difficult weekend for Ferrari at the Portuguese Grand Prix as he struggled to a low-key 10th place and was well off the pace of Leclerc, who converted a brilliant qualifying lap into a strong P4 finish.

Vettel was half a second slower than Leclerc in qualifying as he could only take 15th, 11 places behind the Monegasque, before making slow progress to claim the final point on offer in 10th.

Despite the large performance disparity between the two drivers all season, Vettel insists that Ferrari is giving him the same specification car as Leclerc.

“I have to think that we have the same car, I trust the people around me and in the garage,” Vettel said after the race.

“I have one thing that is obviously telling me by the stopwatch and by the lap times, and the other one is by my feeling. Feeling-wise I really struggled to get the good laps together, be consistent and feel the grip that Charles is able to feel. So I’m working [on] it.

“There’s nothing else other than work that will get me out of it,” he added. “Together with the team around me I’ll try to make the maximum and hopefully we are in a better place next week.

“Obviously our weakness at the moment is the Saturday. On Sunday we are struggling because we are always in the pack and it’s a very difficult race from then and very different. So probably not always the best sort of comparison on Sunday.”

Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto also moved to rubbish emerging conspiracy theories that the pair are not getting the same equipment.

"Seb and Charles' cars are identical, no doubt," he told Sky Italia. "I sincerely hope that Sebastian will be able to qualify better in Imola, and show more of what he is capable of during the race.

"Charles is certainly very good, but maybe you expect even more from the second driver."