F1 News

Ferrari unable to replicate qualifying pace - Wolff

30 April 2019 at 11:23

Toto Wolff believes Ferrari are not able to make the most of the superior power their engine has when it comes to the race, with the team once again faltering behind Mercedes in Baku.

Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel seemed set to out-perform Mercedes in qualifying at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix but after Leclerc crashed in Q2, Vettel was unable to prevent a Mercedes one-two. Throughout the season Ferrari appeared to have far more pace than Mercedes but are yet to beat the Silver Arrows to first or second place after a string of reliability issues, team orders and mistakes.

Wolff admitted the Scuderia are still on top with qualifying speed but feels they have been unable to replicate that when it comes to race day.

"I think Ferrari in qualifying is still at the top in terms of top speed, but in the race, they are not able to exploit this factor,” Wolff said in an interview on f1only.fr.

"On our side, we are able to make everything work well, the team did not make any mistakes [in Baku] and we managed our strategies and the drivers were perfect.

"If we look at Ferrari on the various circuits so far, obviously they have had a lot of problems so far.”