05/10/2018
NEWS STORY
Having yesterday dismissed that he would take a 'now or never' approach to close the fifty-point gap to title rival Lewis Hamilton, today Sebastian Vettel insisted Ferrari would not take a Kamikaze approach in terms of its strategy.
In the last couple of races, Ferrari has lost the power edge it clearly had in the opening races before and straight after the summer break, and as a result the team has opted to go for an aggressive strategy, which has almost always backfired.
Asked if Ferrari will continue its aggressive approach this weekend, having been left 0.8s adrift of Lewis Hamilton in this afternoon's session, and the Briton showing better pace on the softs than he and his teammate on the supersofts, Vettel replied: "I think you can always do something, the question is whether it works.
"Obviously you don't want to commit suicide," he added, "but if we attack we try to be reasonable. It's a long race.
"Today I think, both of us, were sliding a bit too much therefore damaging the tyres a bit more than others but I think overall it's been OK," he insisted.
"It's been a clean Friday, no interruptions, no issues with the car or anything. I think we could focus on our work and now we try to try squeeze out everything that's left in the car for tomorrow.
"We know what the car can do," he added, "and we need to focus on that and try to get everything out to put us in the best possible position.
"If we can grasp pole tomorrow, that's great, but if not we need to be there just right behind and see what happens. It's a long weekend and today is only Friday. There is a little bit to squeeze out of the car and myself, I'm sure."
Check out our Friday gallery from Suzuka, here.