F1 News: Vettel Says Ferrari Still Has 'Lot Of Potential To Unleash'

Sebastian Vettel remains confident that Ferrari can mount a fight back in the second-half of the season despite going into the ongoing summer break with a deficit in both the Drivers’ and Constructors’ championship battles.

The German looked to be well in control of the championship battle with Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, having taken an eight point lead with a win at the British Grand Prix. But a small error that saw him crash out of the lead at the German Grand Prix could have major implications in the title battle.

The British driver, who started 14th in Germany, fought his way through the field to take the win, and he further strengthened his hold over the championship with another win at the Hungarian Grand Prix. Vettel’s potential lead turned into a 24-point deficit going into the summer break.

The championship pendulum has swung between the two drivers in the first 12 races, but Vettel should have had the advantage had it not been for team and driver errors on more than one occasion. The four-time world champion has led the most number of laps and qualified on pole more often than Hamilton, but is still going into the final nine races of the campaign with a large deficit.

The Ferrari driver, however, is not downbeat and is confident that the Italian team have a car that will be able to challenge and put the Mercedes team under pressure once the campaign resumes at the Belgian Grand Prix on Aug. 26.

“We had sometimes the pendulum swinging our way, sometimes not,” Vettel said, as per F1.com. “From my point of view I think it's been fairly consistent. The one error that was very costly [in Germany] - that was quite small, because I wasn't even trying but went off.”

“That's part of the game. I can't rewind the clock. It has happened. It obviously hurt us, but I'm quite confident that if we have the car to fight with, we can put them under pressure and make things happen in the second half,” the Ferrari driver added.

Ferrari mounted a similar challenge in the first half of the 2017 campaign, but the wheels came off in the second-half owing to reliability issues and simply that the Mercedes had a much faster car. It is not the case this season, as Ferrari has proved that they have a car as fast, if not faster than the reigning champions.

Vettel is confident that Ferrari have a much better car this season and indicated that the upgrades planned for later in the year will allow them to maintain their title challenge unlike 2017.

“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,” the four-time Drivers’ champion said. “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. I’m quite confident with what’s sitting in the pipeline that we can improve. So we’ll see. It should be an exciting second part of the year.”