Ferrari 'in great shape' and in perfect mood - Vasseur

New Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur insisted he couldn't be happier with the state of the team heading into next week's first Grand Prix of the 2023 season.

Charles Leclerc won last year's Bahrain GP and the team is hoping for repeat success this year, but they were also well aware they will be up against it after a powerful performance from a dominant Red Bull throughout pre-season testing.

However, Vasseur - who took over as boss at Maranello over the winter from Mattia Binotto - insisted that Ferrari was in good shape for the championship title battle ahead.

"It has been three intense days of work for everyone in the team," he said after the final chequered flag brought the test to a close. "We have scanned a number of items on the car and ticked many of the boxes of our programme."

Leclerc and Carlos Sainz alternated stints in the car over the three days. They were fourth and third fastest respectively at the end of Thursday, but didn't manage to break into the top three again over the remaining days.

"The main target was getting as much mileage under our belt as possible and we did that, although it’s also true that you always want to do more and have more time," Vasseur said, unconcerned about not showing their speed at this stage.

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"Whenever we managed to put everything together the performance seemed to be there, but we are clearly still in the process of getting to know the car - so it’s too early to say anything.

"[We weren't] worrying about lap times or what the others have been doing, simply focusing on ourselves," he said. "The mood in the team is perfect and we are in a good shape to start this long season."

"The first day was all about running big scans and trying to understand how well our data matches what we predicted at the factory," explained Leclerc. "What we learned is that there is quite a good correlation.

"We focused a lot on set-up work this week and made some good steps forward," he continued. "I also tried out some different driving styles to test what suits me best in this new car."

Sainz added that he had been encouraged by the reliability shown by the SF-23 in testing, with no major problems encountered.

"We finished the test without any issues and completed the full run plan that we had for these three days," he said. "Today we focused on both short and long runs to finish the assessment of some of the parameters that we wanted to test.

"Now we will focus on analysing the data, in order to arrive at the first GP of the year as well prepared as possible. I’m looking forward to racing here next week."

The drivers will be back on track at the Bahrain International Circuit on Friday for the first free practice session of 2023, with the Bahrain GP taking place on Sunday March 5.

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