Vettel to discuss Ferrari team orders after Spanish GP issues

Sebastian Vettel has confirmed Ferrari will discuss team orders internally during its Spanish Grand Prix debrief after two incidents appeared to hamper both him and Charles Leclerc’s pace.

After a bold first corner attack on both Mercedes drivers, Vettel locked up his front tyres and suffered a flat spot which badly compromised his pace in the first stint. Having fallen behind Red Bull’s Max Verstappen at Turn 3, Vettel came under pressure from Ferrari teammate Leclerc which triggered yet another team orders dilemma at the Italian squad following a series of incidents so far this season.

After a number of laps holding station, allowing the leading trio to pull an advantage, Ferrari eventually made the call to let Leclerc pass Vettel before pitting the German for fresh tyres.

But with the pair on different strategies, something Vettel says he was unaware of during the race, he caught up to Leclerc during the second stint running on the quicker medium tyres and then endured a similar fate stuck behind his teammate before the call came from his Ferrari engineers to go past for fourth place.

Despite a late safety car intervention, which closed the pack up, Vettel says he didn’t have the pace to catch the top three in another disappointing race for Ferrari.

“We will talk about it internally but inside the car we try to do our own race I think in the beginning it was clear Charles was faster,” Vettel said. “When he was putting on more and more pressure I was happy to let him go.

“Then in the second stint I wasn’t aware we were on different strategies for a long time but once it was clear I was let go and I was obviously a lot faster. I tried to put pressure on Max but with the safety car in the end it didn’t matter.”

Vettel also concedes his race was majorly compromised by his lock up at the first corner meaning he had to settle for fourth place.

“I think we talked a lot on the radio and I was struggling to see stuff and I was struggling to slow down,” Vettel said about the flat spotted tyre. “It compromised my first stint but then after that my pace was fine, from there it was difficult to come back.

“The safety car gave us a bit of a chance but we had the same pace as Max so it was difficult but not impossible to pass Max.”