Vettel: Qualifying a ‘true picture’ of 2020 Ferrari

'Sebastian Vettel would be fighting for P2 in a pink Mercedes'
Both Ferraris barely made Q2 at Spa, and Sebastian Vettel says that the result is an accurate reflection of the pace of the 2020 car.
The Italian team has struggled all season, but the practice sessions in Belgium suggested that things were going to get even worse this weekend, with Charles Leclerc p17 and Vettel P20 in FP3.
While things weren’t quite as bad as that in qualifying in the end, neither driver came anywhere near making Q3, and they will start in P13 and P14 tomorrow.
To make matters worse, neither Leclerc nor Vettel made a mistake or got caught in traffic. In the words of the German, it’s simply where the car is at the moment.
“It is the true picture of what the car can do around here today,” Vettel said after the session.
“Obviously we tried everything we can, and there was a lot of effort going in from last night to today trying to make things better.
“I think we did a little bit. Obviously we’re not where we want to be, but that’s not the first race and the first qualifying where that’s the case.”
#Quali Results#BelgianGP #essereFerrari 🔴 pic.twitter.com/WNUOeyBBw2
— Scuderia Ferrari (@ScuderiaFerrari) August 29, 2020
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Heading into qualifying, there were major doubts that either Ferrari car would even manage to make it into Q2.
Ultimately, both did, although Leclerc was just a tenth away from failing to do so.
Vettel says that it took the team’s best efforts to avoid starting in the bottom five.
“P13 is not as exciting as P1, but still we tried to put everything together,” Vettel said.
“Obviously that’s not a success, but it’s everything we could do today and where we stand.”
It’s been a rapid fall from grace for the team that had comfortably the quickest car at the very same track last season, taking pole position and the win.
With two races in their homeland up next, they’ll just be glad that there won’t be any fans there to witness their struggles in person.
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