Sebastian Vettel after a failed pit stop: “It's painful”

(Motorsport-Total.com) – Another “zero” for Sebastian Vettel, already the sixth in the 13. Race of the Formula 1 season 2020. It looked for the Ferrari driver in Imola in between as if he could get into the high 10 advance. A failed pit stop destroyed this hope. But what exactly went wrong?

Vettel battle in round 39 drove up to Ferrari to change tires, but at the stop several processes went wrong: At the rear left, the winding of the new wheel was delayed. At the front right, the mechanic was unable to fix the wheel nut. In the end Vettel was close 13 seconds before the field.

after P 12 in the race, the four-time Formula 1 world champion spoke at ‘Sky’ of “not a good stop” that made him “a lot.” Time “. “I’m sure this is painful . It’s a shame, otherwise we could have scored points in the end, just like the race went. “

Vettel : Already a collision in lap one

From Vettel’s point of view, the Imola Huge Prix had already started not exhilarating: Right on the opening lap he had a clash with Haas driver Kevin Magnussen in the Tosa curve. Magnussen spun after touching the track, but the stewards refrained from a penalty. Reason: typical first-lap incident.

And: A lap later, a piece of rubble from the Ferrari vehicle got in the way of Mercedes man Valtteri Bottas and damaged his car.

Vettel then drove to 15. Place in the race and made up Plight after Plight because drivers turned too early pit stops in front of him. “That gave me free travel for the majority of the race. That was much better,” says Vettel. “The Straggle itself is not so wrong.”

Ferrari refuses Vettel the desired tires

In fact, Vettel was flushed to fourth place. His pit stop, however, threw him back on P 14. “I hung back there again and lost a lot of time,” he says.

And that also on what he saw as the “wrong” tires, namely the hard compound. Vettel: “I wanted to go on the soft tire.”

“I was then told that we would lose to Lando Norris. I would have gladly accepted to lose a plight and another ten, 15 rounds stay outside and then attack on the Comfy. But I don’t see the distances. That’s why I have to rely on the crew. “

Late attack with soft tires fizzled out

“With the stop”, says Vettel, “it shouldn’t have been anyway. That’s why there weren’t any points today.”

Later, in the round 51, Vettel got his wish and soft tires for the last few meters, “[aber] we weren’t the only ones and we were so far back. “

Basically not everything went wrong in Imola, says Vettel. “It’s harder for me to find the grip on a lap. But the feeling was already a bit better yesterday. The bottom line is that two tenths were missing to Q3. The most important thing is that things move forward.”

Vettel’s Imola conclusion is also positive

“Of course: As soon as you start driving from further back, it will be a completely different race,” explains the Ferrari driver. “In the race there are many factors that play a role. Today I was lucky that I had a clear run. We were able to use that, [wenn auch] limited.”

Vettel’s conclusion after P 11: “We have to be patient, even if it is painful. We have to take small steps. And it wasn’t meant to be today.”