After encountering trouble during the free practice sessions on Friday, Sebastian Vettel’s car will get a new chassis before the final free practice session.
During the second free practice, Vettel complained that his front axle feels like a ‘jelly’ when his rear snapped at the penultimate corner.
Once at the pits, Ferrari engineers tried to figure out what went wrong. But even after a thorough check and analysis, they could not find the reason for the problems Vettel experienced.
To avoid repetition of the same issue on Saturday, the team elected to switch the chassis after getting the approval from FIA.
The Italian squad will build the new monocoque on Friday night and get it verified by FIA before Saturday’s final practice session.
Vettel remained confident about the car’s ability to challenge Mercedes’ pace in spite of a short spin earlier in the day.
“It was a messy afternoon, not an easy session, but the car is quick so no need to worry,” he said. “The only lap I had was the one on the ultra soft.
“Before I did a mistake taking too much risk earlier in the session. I lost the rear into Turn 19, it was my mistake. So we lost that set of tyres.
“In the end, I felt something was not right with the car so we came in a couple of times to check, then go out and double check.”
Vettel has a lot at stake in this particular race as he stares at a huge 59 point gap between him and his main rival, Lewis Hamilton. There is a chance that the Briton may even win the driver’s world championship in this race.
Will this possibility make the German take more risk or play safe, we will get to see on Sunday evening
