Sebastian Vettel said second place was the best Ferrari could do in qualifying at Melbourne but they should be strong in the race.
Vettel split the Mercedes drivers to take second on the grid alongside Lewis Hamilton but admitted there was room for improvement in his qualifying performance.
“But I think Lewis did a very good lap so I don’t think – I would have loved to – but I don’t think pole was up for grabs.”
“Tomorrow I think we can do something in the race. As I said the car feels good, we’ve improved it so the pace feels much better than yesterday when we had some practice.”
Qualifying indicated Ferrari has closed the gap to Mercedes since the end of lap season.
“I think we have a good car,” said Vettel. “I think we are working well as a team, Things are improving.”
“Obviously it’s nice to see that things are working, the car is working. We had a mixed day yesterday but the confidence in the car was there from testing and I think we’ve showed it again today.”
“It’s been a big winter for us, a lot of change we’ve gone through as a team the last 12 months. And to the better, I think the team’s getting stronger, pushing very hard. I think people are fired up and we are motivated for tomorrow.”
2017 F1 season
- Sepang pays Haas compensation for Grosjean’s 2017 crash
- Williams revenues rose in 2017 after Bottas deal with Mercedes
- Australian Grand Prix cost government £56 million last year
- “Grand Prix Driver” takes you inside McLaren’s nightmare final year with Honda
- Undisputed champion: 10 titles name Hamilton top driver of 2017
David Not Coulthard (@davidnotcoulthard)
25th March 2017, 8:21
Sebastian Vettel, 2017
Markp
25th March 2017, 8:56
His boss thought pole was on. He lost huge time in s1 then matched in s2 and was ahead in s3. He might have done it, in this quali session if the drivers swapped cars Hamilton would still be on pole, just did a better job today. That Ferrari are this clise at thisctrack gives me a feeling they will be in front in next few races.
GechiChan (@gechichan)
25th March 2017, 9:01
It’s still too early to tell for sure, but these new cars seem to separate the great drivers from the good ones. Seb trashed Kimi, as well as HAM did to BOT. Also, these cars force a bit more mistakes, even from drivers that usually don’t make them like RIC.
I like 2017 cars so far, they look properly fast on TV.
Jeffrey (@jeffreyj)
25th March 2017, 9:31
How did Hamilton ‘trash’ Bottas? 0.3 is the same difference between Hamilton and Rosberg last year at Australia. It’s not that much really considering Bottas is new settling in at a new team and was clearly overdriving his car. If anything ‘only 0.3’ difference allows me to think Bottas will settle in and settle down and be fine.
Strontium (@strontium)
25th March 2017, 15:42
+1
Philip (@philipgb)
25th March 2017, 18:04
I think Bottas delivered a respectable result. In their first competitive weekend in the same team Hamilton out qualified Rosberg by half a second and Rosberg had been in the team for 3 years while Hamilton was new to the team.
Here we have the opposite, Hamilton has been in the team for 4 years and Bottas is new to the team yet with a smaller deficit.
To me that bodes well for his potential to bring the fight to Hamilton more than Rosberg could once he’s comfortable in the car and team, and once he gets his hands on Hamiltons data which proved so useful to Rosberg.
Felipe
28th March 2017, 22:20
So Vettel is better than Kimi because of what ? What is the evidence you have ? Running around in the fastest car for 4 years makes him better ? Grow up !
darko
25th March 2017, 9:26
I actually think Ferrari will be faster than Mercedes in the race.
Their qualifying pace is far closer now than it has been in last season opener, and Ferrari’s strenght last year has been in the long runs and tyre management.
Kgn11
25th March 2017, 10:59
“Their qualifying pace is far closer now than it has been in last season opener, and Ferrari’s strenght last year has been in the long runs and tyre management.”
Really? Apart from Canada & Australia (that I can remember) when else were Ferrari faster than Mercedes in the race or had better tire management?
Race simulations yesterday on the same tires, they weren’t even close to Hamilton’s times.
darko
26th March 2017, 23:39
Yeah, you weren’t even close.
As for myself, I was speaking relatively – Ferrari has been more competitive in race pace than qualy pace.
I was going by that logic and there you have it, my assessment turned out correct..btw I also said this Ferrari will be the champion car after I saw its first run at Fiorano. I’ve never seen an F1 car riding so smoothly iut of the gate.
Heck, even right at the unveiling I had the feeling the car is something special..those sidepods were a sign to me Ferrari figured things other teams did not.
Palle (@palle)
25th March 2017, 9:45
In general the times of this years qualifying in Melbourne is a little more stretched out in time, i.e. the time difference between the 10 first cars is 0,8 sec larger than last year and the same tendency if You look at the whole field of cars. Thus it is even more impressive to have the first 6 cars closer together than last year and by no means have Hamilton trashed Bottas etc. – As of yet, but lets see what follows.
Kazihno (@kazinho)
25th March 2017, 12:20
According to Mark Webber (during Australian commentary), Mercedes get the best out of the tyres in the cooler conditions, warmer track temperatures help Ferrari.
That goes some way to explaining the fluctuations in gap between Ferrari and Mercedes.
JayR (@deidunxf1)
25th March 2017, 12:34
If this is true then Ferrari should easily dominate the rest of the season easily seeing as most races will be hotter than Australia today.
Ed
25th March 2017, 17:22
That doesn’t mean it will be hot.
The exact same thing was said after Vettel had that surprise win on Malaysia 2015.
Mark
29th March 2017, 6:26
I was at the race and i can tell you now it was quite warm…..autumn in Australia is warmer than summer in many countries.
Omprakash
25th March 2017, 17:24
Difference between Mercedes as well as scuderia, is the difference declared by the drivers, me sure that Ferrari, has the opportunity to prove…