03/10/2018
NEWS STORY
As speculation mounts over Ferrari's sudden loss of power being down to the FIA installing a second sensor on the Italian team's controversial second battery in its energy storage system, Sebastian Vettel has claimed that Mercedes hyped-up Ferrari's apparent superiority in previous races.
Though the Ferrari did appear to have a power advantage from the Red Bull Ring through to Monza, it seems to has clearly lost it in the last two races.
However, ignoring talk of the apparent increase in power and the subsequent loss, Vettel claims all is not what it appears.
I think it's always been very close," says the German. "I think the other side has been very good at communicating that they had an inferior car, but I don't think that was the case.
"It's not nice to have a gap like that," he added, referring to the 0.5s advantage Mercedes enjoyed in qualifying in Russia, "but I think I have been way more realistic about the gaps in general and the performance between the cars.
"I know we have a great car and I'm not doubting that, but I believe their car is very strong too and has been very strong.
"I think it has been a reasonable match and there have been qualifying sessions where we had the upper hand by a tiny bit and they had the upper hand by a little bit, but sometimes also a bit more like in Russia or France or other races. We have a good car and we need to keep improving it."