Vettel set for gearbox change penalty

2016 Russian Grand Prix

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Sebastian Vettel is set for a five-place grid penalty at the Russian Grand Prix after changing his gearbox.

Ferrari has changed his gearbox ahead of this weekend’s race, meaning his previous unit has not completed the required six consecutive events.

Vettel was sidelined during practice with a suspected electrical problem on his power unit.

“[It] looks like we had an electric problem, but I am sure we can fix it,” said Vettel after practice.

“Still, it is a shame, because now we are lacking some laps, especially in the long runs on race trims, which would have allowed us to see how competitive we are.”

“But Kimi [Raikkonen] did the homework for the team, so it is not too bad. Also, here in Russia we know roughly what to expect. I think we can still learn a lot from what other people did.”

Vettel believes the team can still find further one-lap performance from its set-up.

“In qualifying trim we still have some stuff to improve,” he said. “I think the car was getting better though.”

“The track was quite dirty in the morning and then during the day it came more towards us. I felt happier as the day continued, it’s true that for the race we are lacking a bit of information, but we will see tomorrow morning, when we have another practice session.”

2016 Russian Grand Prix

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    Keith Collantine
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    13 comments on “Vettel set for gearbox change penalty”

    1. Darn, even worse reliability than Lewis.

    2. Reliability is what will cost Ferrari the championship. They really need to sort it out for next year. The SF16-H reminds me of the MP4-27.

      1. ILuvSoundtracks (@)
        29th April 2016, 17:51

        I was thinking the same.

      2. Nonsense, they had no chance at either championship except in the deluded minds of the tifosi, the only thing that this sudden spat of reliability problem will maybe cost them is P3 in the WCC to RBR.

      3. @ultimateuzair Agreed that they have to sort it out. But I doubt they have any chance for the championship unfortunately.

        1. to be fair, I can live with the prospect of a certain another title for Mercedes as long as we get Ferrari properly challenging them for the wins. So in that case it’s better to have a not very reliable but fast Ferrari than a reliable, but slow one. It does sound a bit like sugar-coating a bitter pill though…

      4. @ultimateuzair Reliability wont cost them anything lack of performance wont. First you get performance then you get reliability. They need even more performance for the next year before they can start thinking about more reliability.

        And dont you worry about Mercedes, as soon as Ferrari catch up performancewise and Mercedes has to cram out maximum power they will have just as poor reliability as Ferrari.

    3. Good news for Mercedes. Even if Ferrari eventually manage to unleash their full potential, and start challenging Mercedes, they’ll have a hard time recovering all the lost ground from the opening races. We might be in for some very interesting races, but the championships may have already been decided in the silver arrows’ favour.

    4. Are Merc and Ferrari gearboxes more fragile this year as that’s Hamilton and Vetted having to replace gearboxes after innocuous contact in the previous race?

    5. Well, guess I will have to adjust my predictions then, on the other hand, its still more likely that he will be on the podium than Kimi.

      1. Based on what? lol

        1. If seb comes up behind Kimi I expect it to be ‘after you’ in sebs favour.

        2. The past season, no?

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