Ferrari using test to analyse Barcelona struggles

Sebastian Vettel says Ferrari is making use of "a unique chance" to analyse why it struggled at the Spanish Grand Prix during the post-race test.

The teams are carrying out two days of testing on Tuesday and Wednesday at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, with Vettel setting the second fastest time of the opening morning. As Ferrari struggled more than expected during qualifying on Saturday, Vettel says the team is fortunate to be able to try and work out what happened on the same circuit this week.

"I think it’s a unique chance to have the opportunity right after the Grand Prix to test at the same track, all in the same conditions," Vettel said. "It’s not a big secret Saturday we struggled a bit so we tried some stuff this morning, we need to have a good look but it’s not the only thing we are here for today, obviously you try to do everything."

And Vettel does not believe Red Bull has become more of a threat to Ferrari despite Max Verstappen's victory, saying the Scuderia underperformed.

"Well if you get Saturday right then they shouldn’t be too much of a threat. Of course they’ve kept improving, so did we, but I think it’s clear that Saturday didn’t go as well as what we thought and what we hoped. If we had qualified a bit higher up then it could have been a different race but would, could, should.

"We know the result now, we know where to work on so some of that we try to do here and some of that we try to do over the next couple of weeks and months."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.