Vettel expects close margins at Austria season-opener

Sebastian Vettel expects the upcoming back-to-back races in Austria will be decided by very slim margins and has noted the importance of his Ferrari team executing the right strategy in each race.

In just under a week the 2020 Formula 1 season will officially begin at the Red Bull ring in Austria. However, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the calendar has been adapted to fit in as many races as possible within a short space of time. 

Each race in the first European leg will be held behind closed doors, meaning that there will be no fans in the grandstands and tight restrictions on how the teams operate and interact with each other.

There will be eight races in the next ten weeks, with many venues holding two races, each one week apart. This means that teams will be able to use the data gathered in the first week to fine-tune their strategies for the second race.

Due to this, Vettel expects that the teams will have to be perfect in the second week if they want to secure a good result. He told Ferrari: "I have no experience heading back to the same track just a week after and having a second race, but I've been around for a while."

"I guess the level of perfection will be even higher the second weekend, the level of errors will be even smaller.

"I think there will be a chance to look at the race, in particular, review the strategy and we get another chance just seven days after, so that's a first, and we'll see how we tackle that challenge."