Vettel urges patience over Ferrari pace

Sebastian Vettel says he will be patient before getting excited about Ferrari’s pace so far in pre-season.

After Ferrari was fastest on three of the opening four days of testing at Jerez, with Kimi Raikkonen second fastest on day one at Barcelona this week. Reliability issues hit Ferrari on Friday but Vettel returned to the car to complete over 100 laps on the third day, setting the fifth fastest time. Despite being second fastest of the medium-tyre runners - 0.4s slower than Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes - Vettel is not buying in to predictions that Ferrari has made a major step forward just yet.

“I would rather wait and see, it depends much more where you are at the races,” Vettel said. “Mercedes was the strongest team last year at the test but if I ask you about two years ago who had the strongest impression in testing it might be very different at the first race.

“It’s impossible to read, especially this year, not just the fuel loads because you don’t know what people run but also in terms of engine updates you don’t know what people will bring to the first race and then with the introduction of the second, third and fourth engine. Everyone has their own plans.”

Both Mercedes drivers have previously said the Ferrari pace has been impressive, with Nico Rosberg particularly surprised by the step forward shown so far.

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