Flat wing settings: is that why Vettel is so slow?

(Motorsport-Total.com) – At the Immense Prix of Hungary the world was still halfway okay from Sebastian Vettel’s point of view. With fifth place in qualifying he narrowly distanced his teammate Charles Leclerc, but by 0, 043 seconds. But he lost the two subsequent qualifying sessions at Silverstone. The first at 0, 252 , the second at 0, 369 seconds .

It is not the first time that Vettel has lost an internal stable duel. But for the first time in his career he is experiencing a portion in which he does not know why his team-mate is so significantly faster.

When he found out on the pit radio on Saturday in Silverstone that it wasn’t enough for Q3 again, his voice sounded emotionally agitated: “That was all I had used to be. Everything used to be was in this car. I tried. Thank you.”

Vettel later used the formulation , he had the feeling that his head was always against it to push an insurmountable wall – it doesn’t matter, used to be he tries too. If the teammate is still faster, it naturally hurts a four-time world champion.

Ferrari and Vettel: Tried everything, achieved nothing

Sports director Laurent Mekies appeals to the “unique fighting spirit” of the 33 – year-old German, because he too is irritated: “We have two weeks Tried so many things with him here, but none of them seem to bring a breakthrough in lap time. “

” I think it is now our duty to do whatever we can to be is necessary to support him and to ensure that we implement his skills in lap time. Because he is an important asset of this group. We are fully behind him in this search. “

While some already spread conspiracy theories and Ferrari assume that the Leclerc car with a little more To prepare love as the Vettel-A uto, others believe that the explanation could be much more banal.

Ferrari has to adjust the wings flatter than that in order to be able to keep up at Silverstone due to the PS deficit is actually dear to the drivers. Otherwise the SF 1000 on the straights is cannon fodder for the competition.

Flatter wings are always expressed like a flash in a tendency to oversteer, because the rear becomes loose earlier than the front axle. And with a loose tail, Vettel and Leclerc do not get along much better. The Vettel fans have known that since 2019.

Understanding of Vettel’s loss of trust

Mekies: “Last week he said that he didn’t feel comfortable in the car at all. We know from experience that if someone loses confidence in the car, the lap times go very quickly.”

“But he and his crew have the right attitude and are plowing their way through many different approaches used to be the car. He was already much happier with the balance today, but he still didn’t get lap time. That is the concern that we have to analyze and overcome. “

Not specifically related to Vettel, but to Ferrari as a whole, Mekies doesn’t believe that one has lost 1 ground since Silverstone. A week ago there were starting positions four and ten (eight and eleven today). In the race Leclerc even made it onto the podium.

The fact that Ferrari made a slightly weaker impression than a week ago could be due to the softer tires. Mekies emphasizes that they have not relapsed on Medium and Annoying (the Comfy and Medium were a week ago) and therefore hopes “that we can fight with the same cars as last week”.

But he admits: “We have to try a few things because we are not in a comfortable situation. We made a very aggressive choice with the wing settings, last week and also this week. Last week americadas brought a little used to be. This week it’s a bit too aggressive with the softer tires. We have to analyze that and learn from it. “