Vettel: More serious damage at Sepang

Sebastian Vettel failed to achieve the idyllic start to the season he dreamed of last weekend in Melbourne. The Red Bull driver took pole at the Albert Park circuit but lost ground in the race due to high tire degradation. The stable of Milton Keynes will look to save more on the hard and medium tires this weekend at Sepang where the conditions and track will be different. “We still managed to get a very good result. I had indicated that we probably hadn't been fast enough in the race and the tire degradation is a direct link to beating the two cars in front of us (Kimi Räikkönen and Fernando Alonso). We will see tomorrow where we are to try to keep the tires a little better and go a little further. »

With a week between the Australian and Malaysian Grands Prix, the teams have little time to correct the weak points seen in Melbourne. Red Bull will work on the settings of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber's RB9s to be more comfortable with Pirelli tires. Nevertheless, the three-time world champion remains realistic about the Austrian team's potential for progress. “Winter testing and Australia brought cooler temperatures than expected”, recalls the three-time world champion. “But the track (at Sepang) has always been aggressive and I don't expect miracles. I think we will still suffer significant degradation. We will make some changes but nothing has changed from previous years. We do this in other years as well. The Sepang circuit offers more high-speed corners and is more demanding on the tires and you always have to adapt a bit. We still have a lot to learn. »