Sebastian Vettel has played down suggestions Ferrari will struggle more at this weekend's Monaco Grand Prix more than it has at other circuits this season.
Ferrari finished over 45 seconds off the pace of Mercedes at the last round in Spain and was losing most of its lap time in the tighter final sector. Vettel still finished third but both cars struggled for traction, which is key to a quick lap time at Monaco, which has led to suggestions the team could be in for a tricky weekend.
"I think we come here open minded and trying to do our best," Vettel said. "I don't know the record of Ferrari in particular at this track, but statistically - especially compared to last year - we have broken all the statistics so far [this year]. I think we have a car that is generally working everywhere on the circuits we have had so far, in the high-speed sections and also the twisty sections.
"It's true that in Barcelona in the last sector we were not that competitive, but maybe that is down to the fact that we underperformed in Barcelona rather than something being wrong with the car. Hopefully we will be as competitive as the average at the first couple of races [this year].
Vettel is also confident that the new parts Ferrari brought to the Spanish Grand Prix will yield results soon.
"The gap for sure was not satisfying [in Spain] and with all the new parts on the car we expected to get a bit closer. I think in this regard, it's not a good result and we did not succeed, but I still think we made a step forward and for some reason we underperformed in Barcelona - we had something else wrong in the car. I'm confident that it is the right way to go and we are keeping the parts for the race here and trying to understand as much as possible. We had a test straight after Spain so we could try some things that had maybe stood out and then we will see where we are at the next races.
"This is a bit tricky because it's not a normal race track, it is a street circuit and it is quite a bit shorter than other tracks. You need different things to be quick, but I think in the next two or three races we will see how close we are."
And Vettel thinks Monaco is one of the few circuits where a driver can still outshine his car.
"I think it is still valid that you can make more of a difference here than at some other tracks. There is not much room for error, you cannot do any mistakes and you really need to make the perfect lap, especially in qualifying."