Vettel happier with older spec RB8

Sebastian Vettel says he feels more comfortable with the pre-season spec RB8 he drove in free practice in Shanghai today but remains unsure as to whether he will continue with it for the rest of the Chinese Grand Prix weekend.

While Vettel was piloting a version of the car with an exhaust layout last seen in pre-season, Webber today drove the latest spec of the RB8. Afterwards, Vettel explained that the team would need to analyse the data from both cars before making a decision about the rest of the weekend. “I think overall we can be quite happy,” said the defending champion. “We tried a lot of things today, so now we need to go through all of them and see what is the best set-up we can come up with. I think I felt a bit more comfortable today, a bit more together.

“I don’t know yet [if I will continue with this spec]. It’s not the only thing we tried. Obviously, it’s the biggest thing we tried today, but we had a look at some other stuff as well. Mark did as well, so now we need to compare the two across cars and see what’s the best package to come up with. It’s a bit tricky to say now. I think it looked competitive, fairly close, but I think McLaren are still quick in all conditions and all fuel loads.”

Team-mate Webber concurred saying that he and Vettel would likely borrow ideas from each other prior to qualifying. “There are changes in concept and how the cars work on different parts of the lap and now we need to go through all that tonight,” he said. “We might have to rob a bit from each other’s strengths and weakness and feed that into the mix.

“Is it a step forward? Well, you come here from Malaysia where the track is 50 degrees and then you come here and it’s a lot cooler, so the car always feels a bit better because you have quite a high grip track here compared to Malaysia, but in general I’d say we’re going along OK,” Webber added. “We gained a little short run pace and we’ll look at the long run pace. It’s very close at the front. Whether we’re on the front (row in qualifying)… I think it will need a big lap.”