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Ferrari is blatantly prioritising Vettel

16:36, 25 Apr 2018

byNicolás Quarles van Ufford

Even though Kimi Raikkonen seems to be having a very good season so far, his teammate Sebastian Vettel still gets obviously prioritized, says former Williams technical director Pat Symonds.

Raikkonen gets used by Ferrari to slow down the opposition, while Vettel is supposed to be the one actually winning the races, Symonds argues, and therefore he has the following conclusion.

"Ferrari won't win the constructors' title if they keep strategizing like this," he tells Motorsport.com.

"It seems that the drivers' championship is much more important for them than the constructors' championship."

Symonds is surprised that Ferrari has come out to be the favourites thus far, as he thought Mercedes would flip the switch as soon as the season started.

"During the winter testing we thought that Mercedes would have something up their sleeve, but so far that hasn't been the case.

"On top of that, Ferrari is performing consistently and their pace in qualifying is incredible.

"They're in much better shape than they were, they're definitely in for a good season."

He won't go as far as crowning Ferrari champions already, but they definitely look the favourites right now. But, then again, Vettel led the field last season too until the twelfth race of the season. It's a long, long season, we'll have to see whether Mercedes' reliability will win them the title in the end or whether they're simply too far behind in terms of performance.