By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief
Sebastian Vettel is confident that Ferrari has not shown its true pace after an unspectacular showing in Friday’s opening practice sessions for the Australian Grand Prix.
As it stands, Lewis Hamilton swept the two sessions for Mercedes, with Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen pulling to within 0.127 of a second behind after a strong showing in the afternoon. However, it was Kimi Raikkonen leading the way for Ferrari, who paced fourth best at 0.283 of a second behind the leader, with Vettel posting fifth but over half a second off the mark set by Hamilton.
Even still, Vettel, who won the event at Albert Park last season, remains even-keeled about the Italian team’s chances to start the season out strong after completing a combined 62 laps between the two sessions.
“It’s been a rather dull day of work, like every Friday,” said Vettel, the four-time F1 champion.
“We tried to chase the balance because I didn’t feel completely comfortable at first, but I’m not worried about that because I know that if we do everything right, the car should be in better shape.
“It looks like we are close, which is good news, so we should be able to do something tomorrow. This track is particularly tricky, in that if you don’t nail it at first, then there is quite of bit of lap time to be found, and I think we still have much potential to extract. The car is fine; it’s not where we want it to be yet, but if we keep on working, it should be ok.
“I really hope to make a bigger step than the others.”
