Sebastian Vettel believes the SF16-H is a step forward from last years car.
The German was speaking to Ferrari’s official website after he finished the first test in Barcelona on top of the time sheet after achieving 69 laps – blitzing the time set by second placed man – and current world champion – Lewis Hamilton by over four tenths of a second.
He put in a time of 1m24.939s at Barcelona’s Catalunya circuit shortly before lunch on the medium compound tyres. This time was not to be beaten by any driver in the afternoon session despite Hamilton achieving 156 laps.
“I think it’s a step forward,” Vettel said of the new Ferrari at the end of the day.
“I think the first impression is very positive. Generally it feels like a step up.
“I had good confidence straight away and I felt at home so that’s usually a good sign. But we know as well there’s a lot of work ahead of us still. Today’s result is nice but it doesn’t mean much.
“There’s is plenty of stuff we need to get on top of, which is normal for a new car.”
Despite the new Ferrari’s impressive pace Vettel was not getting carried away. He is well aware that this is very early on.
“[Being first] is better than being last, but not really important. As I said, we are fairly happy with the car, the way it felt, so that was good.
“We did some laps. Ideally, I would have liked to do some more, but naturally when everything is new and when you have… I wouldn’t say ‘problems’, but some issues that you look into, then you take a bit more caution and you stop, you look and it takes time.
“We didn’t do as many laps but I think overall we have plenty of reasons to be happy. Equally we have plenty of things we need to improve.
“Times is limited. It’s no secret that in four weeks we’ll be in Australia, so we know we have a lot of work to do.
