F1: Red Bull Has To Improve Overnight, Says Vettel

Formula 1

F1: Red Bull Has To Improve Overnight, Says Vettel

Despite leading P2 in Abu Dhabi, Sebastian Vettel says Red Bull can get its car better...

Adam Cooper | http://www.speedtv.com | Posted November 02, 2012 Abu Dhabi (ARE)

Sebastian Vettel speaks with reporters in Abu Dhabi. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

Sebastian Vettel says that Red Bull has to improve the RB8 overnight, despite the German pipping Lewis Hamilton to the overall top time in FP2.

However, McLaren looked strong all day and showed potentially better race pace.

“I think we can be pretty happy overall,” said Vettel. “I got a very good lap in on the soft tires. The general pace the McLarens were in front of us.

“Obviously, we push as hard as we can. I think we got enough running today. We’re not entirely happy yet with the car; I think we can improve it. We must do so for tomorrow in order to make sure we qualify as high up as we can. It’s not in our hands what the others are doing, so we have to make sure we get the grid spot we can, and then we see whether it’s enough to beat the rest.

“The base wasn’t bad, but I think it was quite slippery for all the drivers, all the cars. We saw many cars going off the track here and there, trying to explore the limits. That’s what we usually do on the Friday. We’re more or less there but, as I said, we need to improve the car for tomorrow.”

Vettel expects to be battling with Hamilton in qualifying: “It looks like at least today the battle was on with him. He was very quick on the medium tire, so we need to do a bit of catching up to make sure we are very close to them and possibly ahead of them tomorrow.”

Adam Cooper notched up his 27th season as a racing journalist in 2011. He has written about F1 for SPEED.com since 2005. Follow him on Twitter.