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Vettel says Ferrari still have "potential to unleash"

15:00, 02 Aug 2018

byAdam Newton

Sebastian Vettel is confident that Ferrari will not repeat their end of season form from last year, where he lost the title in dramatic style with a series of poor races, despite being favourite at the summer break.

This year, Vettel is the chaser, with Lewis Hamilton 24 points out in front after the Brit won two races in a row leading into the break.

Ferrari driver Vettel will need a much better second half to the season than he had last year, where he only won one race after the summer break, in Brazil.

In comparison, Hamilton won five of the last nine as he romped to his fifth world title.

However, Vettel is confident that Ferrari will have more to give this time around.

“As we’ve seen this year the pendulum seems to swing once this side, once that side, and obviously if it’s like this, consistency is the key – scoring points,” he said.

“I didn’t do myself a favour last week [in Germany] but I think it’s part of racing. Stuff happens.

“Compared to last year, we lost the championship I think because our car wasn’t quick enough to be a match in the final part of the season, despite what happened with the DNFs.

“So I hope that this year, and I think this year has shown so far that our car is more efficient, our car is stronger and still has a lot of potential to unleash – so I’m quite confident with what’s sitting in the pipeline that we can improve.

“So, we’ll see. Should be an exciting second part of the year.”

Ferrari started the year on top with Vettel winning the first two races, but Hamilton and Mercedes have had the upper hand recently, winning five of the last nine.

However, Kimi Raikkonen has shown that Ferrari are competitive by scoring five podium positions on the bounce.