Sebastian Vettel says his team needs to work harder

After failing to make the podium in his home Grand Prix, Red Bull ace Vettel says his team needs to work harder to keep up with the much-improved Mclarens and Ferraris

Sebastian Vettel says his team needs to work harder

After failing to make the podium in his home Grand Prix, Red Bull ace Vettel says his team needs to work harder to keep up with the much-improved Mclarens and Ferraris

Sebastianu00a0Vettel has called on Red Bull to get to the bottom of the issues that plagued his home grand prix in Germany on Sunday.

Sebastian Vettel

After failing to start from the front row for the first time in 15 races, Vettel then followed that up by failing to make the podium for the first time in 12.

The reigning world champion was forced to settle for fourth, his lowest finishing position since last season's Korean Grand Prix.

After missing out on pole at the last race at Silverstone to teammate Mark Webber, and being beaten in the race by Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, all of a sudden chinks have appeared in his previously impregnable armour.
That was particularly evident over the weekend at the Nurburgring, with team principal Christian Horner revealing Vettel was far from comfortable throughout.

Another first for Vettel this season is that he has had his lead cut, although only by three points by Webber, with victor Lewis Hamilton and runner-up Fernando Alonso 82 and 86 points adrift.

But expressing unhappiness for the first time this season, and with the next race in Hungary on Sunday, Vettel said: "The weekend was a bit strange.

"I never felt 100% well in the car. There have been moments when I thought that everything would be back to normal, but in the end it wasn't and issues surfaced.

"Now we have to sit down and analyse the reasons for all these hiccups because one thing became very clear this weekend -- the others have caught up so we also have to keep up our development.

"The next race now comes around quick, with Hungary normally a good track for us, so we'll see.

"But we have homework to do because McLaren and Ferrari were very quick in this race and we need to come back to the pace they have."