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Vettel After Win: "Ferrari Have Taken Step Backwards"

12:33, 26 Mar 2018

byNicolás Quarles van Ufford

Sebastian Vettel has said that Ferrari is less competitive than last year compared to Mercedes compared to last year, even though the German won the first race of the season and his teammate Kimi Raikkonen came in third.

Vettel started third but after a tactical mishap from Mercedes, the German took the lead after pitting while the Virtual Safety Car was active. From that point on, Lewis Hamilton couldn't mount a real challenge and Vettel saw out the race.

“Today we didn't have the true race pace to match [Mercedes],” Vettel said after his victory in Melbourne.

“To be fair, Lewis was the fastest guy out there today, whereas last year I think we had a bit more pace at this point."

"Last year we were putting them under pressure."

“At the moment we’re a bit worse [than last year]."

"If you look at the time gaps from the whole weekend we're clearly not a true match yet, so we aren't where we want to be yet at this point."

“When I'm racing the car doesn't respond the way you'd like."

"I want the car to be spot on when I hit the brakes and turn in - I'm still struggling a little bit and I'm not yet happy.”