Vettel: Solving balance issues is key to unlock car potential

Vettel admitted that he is not comfortable with the balance of the RB8 and could not point to any specific area of the car that needs to be improved.

"There is not a fundamental problem with the car," said Vettel. "It's not as if you look at the back end or the front wing and there is a problem. There are a couple of things that maybe do not work together nicely. The car is very nervous and it is moving a lot.

"The problem that we have at this stage is that the balance of the car doesn't seem to be as good as it was last year. That's not about downforce level, it's about getting the car to work together as a whole. That's where we are trying to improve."

Vettel has no doubts that the RB8 is a car that can challenge for race wins, but is not sure how long it will take to find the right balance.

But he insists that the team does have a handle on the direction that it needs to go in and once it has understood the car fully, Red Bull will be back on form.

"I would not say that we are lost," said Vettel. "The problems with the car are very different and bigger than last year, when we understood the car very well and we could build on that.

"I strongly believe that we have a very competitive car. We just need to get it working properly and we should be in a very competitive position.

"What hurts us is that we cannot get to the full potential of the car. Once we put this puzzle together, we will be in a much better position."