Ferrari in fierce fight with rival Mercedes
Formula One heads home after four opening long-haul races with the championship finely balanced between champions Mercedes and Ferrari and the prospect of an intense battle stretching out ahead.
Formula One heads home after four opening long-haul races with the championship finely balanced between champions Mercedes and Ferrari and the prospect of an intense battle stretching out ahead.
With the European season proper starting in Spain next week, and teams promising upgrades and a faster pace of development, the two frontrunners return to their factories with two wins apiece.
Mercedes have a one-point lead in the constructors’ championship, while Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, with two wins and two second places, is 13 clear of Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton.
“It’s going to be extremely close,” said Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff. “More than very.
“They [Ferrari] came out of the winter with a good car and it seems to suit Sebastian a lot. And we just need to stretch ourselves to perform as good as we can,” added the Austrian.
So far, success has alternated between the two teams, with Vettel winning the opener in Australia, Hamilton in China, Vettel again in Bahrain and Valtteri Bottas taking his career first success in Russia.
In 2016, Mercedes were the dominant team and won all but two of the races, with 20 pole positions from 21 starts, but resurgent Ferrari — who won nothing — have already recast the 2017 landscape.
Vettel’s pole in Sochi was Ferrari’s first since 2015 and the front row lockout the first grid since 2008, with both red cars at the front.
There can be no doubt now that the sport’s oldest and most successful team are back with a vengeance.
The split between the Mercedes drivers has favoured Vettel, whose own Finnish teammate Kimi Raikkonen has scored 49 points to the German’s 86, while Hamilton and Bottas are separated by just 10.
Red Bull are a distant third at present, with Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo fifth and sixth in the standings, but they too could get back into the mix.
“I think it will be a very close race between Mercedes and us… and I also hope that Red Bull find some pace,” said Vettel, who won his four world championships with Red Bull.