Last year Sebastian Vettel powered to victory at the Singapore Grand Prix, fast forward a year and the Ferrari team are trailing the pace setters, but the quadruple F1 world champion remains confident and believes that qualifying is where the team needs to excel.
Vettel told media at the end of free practice, “We need to get everything right in qualifying. It is very difficult to pass here, so we will try to trim everything towards qualifying and then we will see. If we get everything right it will be very tight but we have the chance.”
Vettel ended Friday night fifth fastest, a second down on the top time set by Nico Rosberg in the Mercedes, with his Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen providing a sliver of hope setting the second best time, a quarter of a second off Rosberg’s best.
“Mercedes is the favourite and I think we are in the same boat at Red Bull, we try to get everything in line and line our ducks up in the right way and hopefully we can have a shot.”
“Overall it was OK; in the evening I wasn’t entirely happy with the car balance and therefore not finding the rhythm but all in all it’s been a good day.
“I struggled a bit to find the rhythm but all in all, I think it’s been a decent session,” he said. “My lap wasn’t good enough [but] I think Kimi had a very good lap.”
Marina Bay Circuit is a tricky venue and there is a high probability of a safety car period which Vettel hopes his team can leverage should the opportunity arise in this edition of the race.
“They come at the right time and it can have a big impact on the race but I think everyone is in the same boat, some you win, some you lose. We are planning to race 61 laps and we are not relying on a safety car here,” insisted Vettel.
The four times Formula 1 world champion has won races every season since his first win in Italy, back in 2008 for Toro Rosso, except in 2014 where he did not stand on the top step of the podium once. He has yet to win a race so far this season.