Ferrari: Vettel was the fastest, but not the most reliable

After three hours of free practice at the Red Bull Ring, Sebastian Vettel had mixed feelings. On one hand, his Ferrari kept up with the Mercedes over a single lap: the German even finished the second free practice session at the top of the timesheets. Similarly, during long runs, the Scuderia seemed closer to the Silver Arrows than in Canada. On the other hand, there were issues with Vettel’s gearbox, which limited his running on Friday afternoon.

Sebastian Vettel was still unsure about the transmission issues: « In the afternoon session, we encountered a problem with the gearbox because one of the sensors went into « alert mode » and we had to slow down. Obviously, we now have to closely inspect this issue: we do not yet know what the problem is but it seems that [the afternoon incident] is not related to the morning one. »

Nevertheless, if reliability is present this weekend, the German driver should be able to compete at the front. He remains cautious about his car’s performance: Overall, the pace seems to suit. (…) We know we have a good car and we know we are competitive, let’s wait to see what happens tomorrow. We must make sure to stay with the Mercedes as much as we can: it should be an interesting qualifying tomorrow.

Third twice this Friday, Kimi Räikkönen could consider himself lucky with the pace of his car: « It was a good day of work, but it’s only Friday and it’s hard to know where we stand compared to our competitors because the track layout here is such that all the cars are close to each other. Unfortunately, I only managed one lap on the super-softs: I went a little too fast and went off, which destroyed the right tire by locking it. It’s unfortunate, I would have preferred to do a long stint with that compound ».