[arunphilip]

Originally Posted by Fullrevs

Is it just me or are there cracks in Vettel's story already? Some of his press interviews seem a bit awkward.

These drivers are all alphas. Utter self-confidence, the belief they're the best, etc. It often crosses over into arrogance, but that's often what is needed to survive and succeed at the highest levels of competition.

So it's immensely hard for them to come out and admit they messed up. And in Vettel's case, he's been messing up for a string of races (and we've seen less than stellar behaviour in his past Ferrari years as well).

I think it's also sinking into Vettel that he's the one who's been throwing away a lot of points with his desperate driving, and the team's incorrect strategy calls come a distant second.

There might be a seed of truth that some upgrades were reverted, but I'd be surprised if it was actually 4 months of upgrades. I think he's just embellishing this point to explain away some of his poor performances.

If anything, I think this race showed Merc suffering more with their rim change, than Ferrari leaping ahead by correcting their car design. Remember how Max kept in striking distance of Kimi?

[Chetan_Rao]

Originally Posted by arunphilip

....

There might be a seed of truth that some upgrades were reverted, but I'd be surprised if it was actually 4 months of upgrades. I think he's just embellishing this point to explain away some of his poor performances.....

I don't buy Vettel's argument at face value either, but there were some races mid-season where Kimi was not running the upgrades Vettel was (either out of preference or unavailability for both cars simultaneously), and was still pretty quick with an inferior spec. Leads me to believe Ferrari went chasing down at least a few dead-ends before realizing there's nothing to be gained. Happens to all teams and not necessarily a bad thing per se, esp. when the contemporary set of regulations are hitting stable state and significant gains are harder to find, but Ferrari hit their development slump right after their lead driver had given up multiple chances to bank a lead.

Alonso was a contender till the last race in an arguably inferior Ferrari a few years ago, and he'd probably be thereabouts this year or even leading by a few in the 2018 Ferrari.

[SilentEngine]

In any season where WDC fight is a two-horse race, there will be very little margin for any mistakes. With Mercedes operating like Ferrari of Schumacher dominance era, Vettel and Ferrari couldn't afford to make those mistakes, race after race.

Originally Posted by Chetan_Rao

Alonso was a contender till the last race in an arguably inferior Ferrari a few years ago, and he'd probably be thereabouts this year or even leading by a few in the 2018 Ferrari.

What you say is true for 2013, but there is no guarantee that Alonso would have fared any better now because that would be pure speculation at this point.

[Chetan_Rao]

Originally Posted by SilentEngine

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What you say is true for 2013, but there is no guarantee that Alonso would have fared any better now because that would be pure speculation at this point.

Speculation of course, but a pretty good case to be made given the quality of his driving is as good as it ever was.

I don't have stats handy, but would think it's a fair comment to make that he has managed to race in a packed midfield for several years now with less total unforced errors than some of the front-runners have managed over the same period in what's at best been two-horse races in the same time frame.