Vettel tells Ferrari pit wall: ‘You’ve messed up’

Mark Scott
Sebastian Vettel not happy 2020

Sebastian Vettel

The continued disconnect between Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari was clear for all to see during the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix at Silverstone.

The four-time World Champion, leaving the Scuderia at the end of the season, has had a torrid couple of weeks at the iconic British circuit in what is proving to be a torrid final year at Ferrari.

The woes continued on race day for Vettel, as he spun out just three corners in to the 52-lap race and he fell from P11 to the very back of the grid.

Vettel set about recovering his way up the grid and, up until now, has not pointed any fingers at anyone within Ferrari for his troubles so far in this revised 2020 campaign.

But, that all changed after Ferrari forced him to pit and that stop subsequently put him into traffic. His resulting radio message was the clearest sign yet that all is not well between driver and team.

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“It is in the gap that we didn’t like,” Vettel said.

“We spoke about it this morning. I’ll hang in there but you know that you’ve messed up.”

Prior to the second race at Silverstone, Ferrari Formula 1 team sporting director Laurent Mekies said it was the team’s “duty” to support Vettel.

“I think Sebastian is second to none when it comes to fighting spirit and to try everything he can and be as constructive as one can be in trying to understand how to move the next limit,” Mekies is quoted as having told Italian television.

“I think what he expressed in saying we hit the wall is we have been trying so many different things in the last two weeks here with him which somehow made the car feel better, but didn’t seem to be any breakthrough in terms of lap time.

“And I think it’s our duty now trying to do anything we can to support him, and to make sure that we convert the better car thing into lap time, because he’s a massive asset for the team and he’s not an asset that we can leave behind. And therefore we are together with him on that search for that missing batch of lap time that we are after.

“I think as he expressed last week he was very uncomfortable with the car, and you know from experience as soon as one is losing the confidence in the car it’s very to have the lap time disappear.

“Nonetheless he kept the right spirit, and with his group they looked at many different ways to set up the car. We somehow arrived at something he was much happier with in terms of balance, but he didn’t unlock the lap time we’re after, and that’s the concern that we now have to analyse and to try to unlock.”

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