- Red Bull
Ferrari progress encouraging for Red Bull - Vettel
Sebastian Vettel believes Red Bull should use the example set by Fernando Alonso and Ferrari in China as motivation in its quest to catch Mercedes.
After a disappointing start to the season, a change in team principal after Bahrain saw Fernando Alonso claim Ferrari's first podium of the season in China. It has been clear in the flyaway races Red Bull lacks the straight-line speed to catch Mercedes, despite having a car which is quick through the corners, but Vettel believes that could change quickly.
"It's no big secret that if you look at sector times or comparisons we have available we are losing out on the straights," Vettel said. "There's always hope. Just look at Ferrari for example, the step that they made was mainly in a straight line and picked up about 7km/h on the straight [in China]. We know that our disadvantage is more than 7km/h to the Mercedes but things can change quickly!"
Vettel has changed his chassis for Spain, after opting to change to one use during the winter, and he hopes this will propel him back into podium contention.
"I think we actually concluded after China, where we were quite a little bit behind, to change the chassis. In fact the new chassis is an old one that we used in testing this winter, and one we have some experience with. It's more a sanity check than a problem with the other chassis, we just want to try everything we can and basically reset and start again."
"Usually if you change you change to a new one but we decided to go back to an older chassis just to make sure nothing is wrong. It's just to change the things that you can. We don't think there was anything wrong with the old chassis but we decided to change - we should have an answer this weekend."
After struggling in China, a race which saw him ordered to move over for Daniel Ricciardo, Vettel admits he is confident he can get to grips with the RB10 in Spain.
"In general I don't mind if the rear is moving, so I don't mind suffering or having oversteer in the car. But if it happens too much it starts to bother you. When the car slides too much you find yourself correcting more than being able to push or get the maximum out of the car and it slows you down. That has been part of the problem so far.
"There are lots of reasons behind it so it would be nice to have just one problem and just one fix for that but obviously it is more complexed this year. There are much more factors than just the car set-up. Generally you never change the way you like to drive the car, or your style, that never changes."
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
