Sebastian Vettel believes his Ferrari is capable of closing the gap to the pace-setting Red Bulls at the Monaco Grand Prix this weekend. Daniel Ricciardo set a new lap record at Monaco on Thursday with a 1:11.841 in second practice using the hyper-soft tyres. The time gave him a 0.194s lead over teammate Max Verstappen and a 0.572s gap to Vettel in third.
But after failing to get his Ferrari completely hooked up by the end of Thursday practice, Vettel is confident some set-up tweaks will help him close the gap.
“Can we be quicker than Red Bull? Why not?” he said after climbing out of his car in the Monaco pit lane. “I think we have had some Friday practice sessions where they are quick this year, so I think for us we need to look at ourselves which is what we do and try to do our work.
“I was pretty comfortable in the car. I was sliding a little bit too much, but as long as you know where it is going to end up and how it is going to slide, then it’s fine. Now we need to get on top of the sliding and reduce it then we should be in a good position.”
Vettel said he had yet to push to the absolute limit around the 3.3km track.
“You have no room for mistakes so you have to think twice before you drop it and try everything,” he said. “But I think it’s what it’s about at a street circuit. I was happy today and I could play around even if I was sliding a lot, I still knew I wasn’t going to touch the barriers. Now we just need to get on top of the sliding and I think we will find some more pace.”
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