Too early to judge Ferrari's potential, insists Sebastian Vettel
Ferrari finally broke its silence on Wednesday as Sebastian Vettel spoke to the media at the end of the third day of Barcelona testing, after the Italian team had kept quiet for the first two days.
Vettel was second fastest on Wednesday, but he was only two-tenths shy of the pace setting Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas – and was using soft rather than ultra soft tires. Inevitably the German has reserved judgment on the potential of the car.
“Two days, well we’ve had three days, but I’ve had two days in the car,” he said. “I won’t get much more, another two days. But I think it’s impossible. We’re not really trying to look at other people, obviously you see the times, but we’re focusing on ourselves.
“I think by the looks of it the car is working, we don’t have any major issues, which is the most important thing. It was reliable already at Fiorano last week, when we shook the car down, but in terms of performance it’s still too early to tell. We have a lot, a lot, of work to do.”
Vettel said he’s enjoying the new rules so far.
“Faster is always better, at least for us. I think for all the drivers, if you can go faster, which we can with these regulations, it’s more fun. You have higher corner speeds, you enjoy it more. It’s more or less like it was 10 years ago.
“The cars are different, so obviously a big change, the tires are different, more consistent, but in terms of preparation you always try to do the best, that’s for me, that’s for the team, that’s for all of us, trying to be in the best shape possible. That’s still four or three and a half weeks or whatever away from now, so we’ve got a lot of work between now and Australia.”
