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Cape Town - Both Lewis Hamilton and Toto Wolff admit they're feeling a bit sorry for Ferrari after Sebastian Vettel's title hopes were all but obliterated with yet more reliability woes.
Following on from his engine troubles in Malaysia that meant he started the race from the very back of the grid, Vettel failed to finish the Japanese GP because of yet more engine issues.
Ferrari have confirmed that it was a broken spark plug that led to his DNF on Sunday, leaving the German 59 points behind Hamilton in the race for the World title.
"He's been very unfortunate through no fault of his own," Hamilton said of his win in Japan.
"I was excited to have a good race with Sebastian here but he's been incredibly unfortunate."
Meanwhile Wolff, Mercedes motorsport boss, says he sympathises with Ferrari but believes they will get on top of their reliability issues.
"We can relate to it," he told Sky F1.
"The Ferrari guys certainly feel awful at the moment.
"I get on well with them and with Maurizio [Arrivabene, team boss] and it's not a situation you want to be in.
"Maybe it's the development of the team.
"They made a huge step forward from 2016 to 2017, their car is super fast - it just lacks reliability and that is the next step."
