Ferrari quicker than Williams on Friday, as Kimi's long-run catches eye
Monday 16 March 2015 14:10, UK
Sebastian Vettel admits Ferrari can’t expect to challenge Mercedes at the Australian GP, but the team’s new signing and team-mate Kimi Raikkonen believe they can be pleased with the SF15-T’s start to the season.
A tight battle behind Mercedes has been expected in Melbourne after Williams, Red Bull and Ferrari were relatively evenly matched during winter testing and on the opening day of practice it was the Scuderia who finished closest to the dominant W06s.
Vettel, whose third-fastest time in P2 was seven tenths slower than pacesetter Nico Rosberg but 0.8s quicker than Williams’ Valtteri Bottas, is hopeful the team can hold their ground.
“It would be nice to stay in front of as many people as we can. I’m sure that Mercedes is out of reach, you have to be realistic, but the most important thing is we ran and didn’t have any problems,” the four-time world champion said.
“It was very smooth and I don’t remember the last smooth Friday I had like this, so from that point of view it’s very good.”
Having joined Ferrari on the back of their first winless season in two decades, Vettel believes the team have started 2015 in more positive shape, even if little can be read into Friday’s opening timesheets.
“It was a good day. We didn’t have any issues with the car or problems with reliability. It seems that the hard work we did over the tests was positive,” Vettel added.
“In terms of performance, the higher up you are the better it is, but it’s Friday and I’ve been in Formula 1 for quite a while and Friday is not that important for looking at lap times.”
Although slower than his new stable-mate on single-lap pace in P2, Raikkonen caught the eye in the later longer runs with his consistent times appearing to place him behind only the Mercedes'.
Having struggled badly with last year’s Ferrari, Raikkonen agrees that the Maranello marque are in a far better place at the start of this season – even if he personally wasn’t happy with his driving around Albert Park on Friday.
“The whole package has been a big improvement and the team has done a good job over the winter, but obviously we still have work to do,” the Finn said.
“We had to start somewhere and compared to last year it is a good step. But it was not an ideal day, I’m not driving very well, not putting the lap together, but we changed the car for the longer run and it seemed to work a bit better. So that is positive, just need to put things together.”
