Vettel denies emerging Ferrari crisis

Sebastian Vettel has denied that Ferrari may be entering a "crisis" as suggested by Italian media recently. This follows the British Grand Prix which marked a very disappointing weekend for Ferrari - a weekend that Vettel expected improved performance at.

Responding to these crisis claims, Vettel said: "I don't think so,"  when speaking to La Repubblica. "I do think Mercedes has recovered a lot of ground, but we are still fast - especially on Sundays. On Saturday we suffer too much, because when starting the races from behind it is not always possible to recover."

Talking about the British Grand Prix, Vettel compared Mercedes to Ferrari in terms of performance: "In the corners it behaves very well and is balanced. At Copse we were 10kph ahead of them [Mercedes]. Maybe they are a little more efficient in aerodynamics, which this year counts for much, but in general we are there."

The F1 circus heads to Hungary this weekend for the Hungarian Grand Prix - a circuit that should theoretically benefit Ferrari due to the flowing nature of the circuit. Vettel is not expecting a decisive weekend however, although he does think that the outcome will be different to Silverstone two weeks ago. 

Vettel currently leads the Drivers' Championship by 1 point from Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton, meaning that the race in Hungary this weekend will be a key battle this season. Whoever finishes out in front this weekend will take the lead in the championship going into F1's mid-season break. 

Chris Soulsby