Ferrari open to changing Vettel’s chassis

Michelle Foster
Sebastian Vettel climbs into SF1000

Sebastian Vettel climbs into SF1000

With Sebastian Vettel struggling compared to Charles Leclerc, Mattia Binotto says Ferrari is “open” to giving the German a new chassis ahead of the Spanish GP.

Vettel failed to make it out of Q2 at the Silverstone circuit on Saturday, lining up 11th for the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix.

The four-time World Champ’s weekend went from bad to worse as he spun on the opening lap, dropping down to 20th.

A bad strategy call, at least according to Vettel, meant he was not able to work into the points and he finished down in 12th place.

His team-mate Leclerc was fourth.

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Team boss Binotto has revealed that Vettel could have a new chassis ahead of the next race, this weekend’s Spanish GP, as Ferrari is open to doing all it can to help the German recover his lost form.

“It is something at least which I didn’t discuss [yet],” the Italian told Motorsport.com. “That’s part of the discussion we have within teams.

“I think we are open if it is something that may help. Why not?

“I think whatever we can do to help is important for us, for Sebastian, and I think from a team point of view and a driver point of view, to try to make better in the next races.

“It is important, so open to do it.

“I will leave it to the driver and the team to discuss and decide.”

Vettel’s P12 on Sunday follows his P10 from the previous Silverstone race, a grand prix in which Leclerc finished third, bagging his second podium result of this season.

Vettel, who has previously stated that he has no confidence in the car, is baffled as to where it has all gone wrong.

“You had two weekends in the same place and from Saturday morning, last week, I wasn’t able to make any progress. That’s the thing that stands out,” said Vettel.

“I think around the lap, this weekend is a bit more difficult to judge because we ran slightly different downforce levels on the car. Around the lap, it seems like a fairly even loss and mostly I struggle in lower speed and medium speed corners.

“It’s something that we didn’t get on top of. We have obviously the next race coming in a week, not here again, but somewhere else so we’ll see what we can do. But hopefully we can be back to the table with normal pace.

“I think today in the race obviously also last weekend, our races [Leclerc and his] were very different. I was always stuck in traffic starting further back. Losing the car in the first lap didn’t help in this regard, but there were probably very few laps to have comparison in the race. Hopefully the next one is a smoother race and therefore should be a straightforward result.”

Torquing Point - Leclerc + Vettel

Finley and Michelle from www.planetf1.com podcast 'Torquing Point' discuss LeClerc's good performances and if Vettel will even see the season out at Ferrari.

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