Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsFerrari

Vettel confident in Ferrari victory chances

Sebastian Vettel says it is realistic for Ferrari to target winning races this season despite Mercedes looking dominant once again.

Mercedes goes in to Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix as the heavy favourite, with the defending champions fastest in pre-season testing. Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene has set the team a target of two victories this year and with a more competitive car Vettel says 2014 showed there will be chances for teams to win races.

“It depends on the form of the other teams as well but I think we’ve made a step,” Vettel said. “We’re yet to find out how big the step is and then it depends. I think we’ve seen last year that there’s chances to win races – not just for Mercedes.

“So if you put yourself in a very strong position, probably at the beginning of the season right behind, then if something happens, you’re there. I’m sure it’s not what they want but these things can happen to all of the drivers, all of the teams.”

And Vettel says Ferrari is cautiously optimistic that it has made a clear improvement compared to last year heading in to the opening race.

“I think generally the atmosphere is very positive. Obviously there has been a lot of change over the winter but people have been working very hard and I think we have definitely improved as a team, so now we’ll see when we get the chance to put the car on the track, we can see where the others are, see what the others run, especially on Saturday. Finally you know a little bit more.”

Click here for Thursday's gallery from the Australian Grand Prix

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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.