Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsFerrari

Vettel ‘back to the old Sebastian’

Helmut Marko says Sebastian Vettel is already back to his old self following his move to Ferrari.

Vettel left Red Bull - where he had come through the young driver program and became four-time world champion - at the end of 2014 to replace Fernando Alonso at Ferrari. Team principal Christian Horner said at the time of Vettel’s departure that he felt the German needed a new challenge, and Marko says he has already noticed a difference in the driver he helped nurture in to a world champion.

“He's in a good mood,” Marko told Bild. “He’s sending me naughty and funny text messages. Now he is back to the old Sebastian.”

Vettel topped the times on both of his days in the Ferrari SF15-T at the first pre-season test at Jerez, saying he was encouraged by the platform the team has to build from ahead of the 2015 season.

The second test takes place from February 19-22 and the final test from February 26-March 2, both at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona.

Click here for the full gallery of the first photos of the SF15-T

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.