Sebastian Vettel says he’s not concerned by McLaren’s pace at a wet Korean GP venue today, and says that little was learned of value for what is expected to be a dry race.
Vettel was third in FP2, some 1.8s off pacesetter Lewis Hamilton.
“On Sunday the weather forecast to be dry,” said Vettel. “So whatever we learned today might not be worth a lot for this weekend, maybe for the next event in case it’s damp or wet. But unfortunately the track didn’t dry up and allow us to get a shot on these tyres. It’s pretty aggressive this weekend, so we’ll find out in the race, I guess.”
With Pirelli bringing both of its softest compounds, it’s anticipated that there will be a high number of pit stops on Sunday.
“We can do maximum five, that’s all the tyres we have. Maybe we need to put a set of intermediates at the end just to cross the chequered flag! We’ll see.
“Maybe it turns out to be better than we all expect, or worse. It’s hard to predict as usual. It’s quite a tough track on tyres I think, even though you’ve got long straights in the first sector, there’s hardly any rest after that. It’s not that easy. As I said what we learned today is not worth a lot for the next two days, but the car feels alright, that’s the most important thing.”
Vettel says he doesn’t think that his life will be any tougher now that the championship is done and dusted.
“I don’t think it’s tougher than all the other weekends. It would be bad for all the others if they were going around with half throttle for all the other races! I don’t expect it to be more difficult than the other races. We’ll see who is more competitive. Surely in those conditions this afternoon McLaren looked very strong, but we’ve seen that a couple of times on Fridays, so it’s hard to judge.”
Adam Cooper F1 
McLaren have had a very very fast car for much of this season (far longer than many in the British press give credit for!) and rarely managed to release it’s full potential in my opinion. When we go to high downforce tracks (like Hungary, Suzuka and Catalunya) McLaren seem to excel, additionally when it rains they come to the fore, suggesting they have both good downforce levels and good mechanical grip.
I think we’ll see McLaren win more races this season, but from the evidence I honestly think they should have made far more of the title battle this season, and perhaps it’s only Vettels supreme consistency (even on his bad days) that has defeated them.
CTR_Paul, the fact Webber hasn’t maximised the Red Bull’s potential hasn’t helped the other teams either. McLaren have won 5 races to Red Bull’s 9 but the former has those wins split between two drivers.
McLaren have made mistakes which have cost Jenson Button a lot of points, notably at Monaco by pitting him from first before the safety car cost him 10 points (3rd instead of 1st), Button 10-12 points (minimum) at Silverstone by not putting his front left wheel on correctly and then the hydraulics issue at the next race in Germany cost him 8-10 points.