Ferrari chief Stefano Domenicali believes Vettel’s win was not nearly as dominant as it looked.
Ferrari team chief Stefano Domenicali believes Sebastian Vettel was flattered by the manner of his win in Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix.
The defending triple world champion claimed his 29th career win by driving his Red Bull car from pole position to the chequered flag in an unchallenged demonstration of dominance.
Victory gives him a 36 point lead over Alonso after seven races.
But Domenicali said he believed it would have been a completely different picture if two-time world champion Spaniard Fernando Alonso had started from the front row instead of sixth place on the grid.
“I believe if Fernando had been on the first row like Sebastian then it would have been a different story,” he said.
“The main difference was that everyone, I believe, thought that the super-soft was the tyre for the race, but because the temperature was higher, then it was the other way around.
“This is something to learn from, as it is so on the edge that a couple of degrees can make a difference.”
Domenicali added that Ferrari’s chief and most costly weakness in performance was in single lap – or qualifying – pace.
He conceded again in Canada that it was the area on which the scarlet scuderia now needed to focus if they were to close the gap on the championship leading 25-year-old German ace.
“Yes, unfortunately it is a very easy thing to say, but a very difficult thing to do,” he said.
“We have seen the performance during the race is very, very good, and here Sebastian did an incredible race – being in first place and dictating his pace with no problem.
“But when you have such a strong qualifying you can also have this situation. Of course this — improving qualifying — is a need for us because if you start behind you are not able to attack.
“So to be second in the race was really the maximum that we could have done.”
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