Sebastian Vettel has played down claims Ferrari are favourites heading into the first race of the 2017 Formula 1 season, following comments from Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton.
"I think Ferrari are possibly the favourites," Hamilton commented earlier in the week. "We can't take our eyes off them. They've done such a good job at the moment and Red Bull look like they've gone quite quick as well today so we shall see over the next days and most importantly in the next weeks."
Vettel, who posted the fastest time of testing so far on Thursday morning – a 1:19.024 – still believes Mercedes are the ones to keep an eye on and suspects they're intentionally hiding their pace during testing, as they have done in the past.
"If you look at the amount of laps Mercedes has done, historically how slow they were going in the tests," said Vettel, "and how much they were able to ramp it up for the races…
"It’s clear that they are very fast, if you look at their long-run pace, etc. I think they’re the ones to beat. It doesn’t really matter where we are now. We are growing, we need to work hard, we know that we have to improve and that’s why I think it’s important not to get distracted right now."
Vettel says Ferrari are very much focusing on their own efforts, rather than looking at what their competitors are doing.
"I think we’re focusing on our own stuff here – it’s important, there’s a lot of stuff on our list," he added. "As I said, we’re probably still a little bit behind. There’s a lot of stuff to do and a lot of boxes to be ticked.
"I think we’ve learned in the past that Barcelona is important, to give an indication [of where the car stands]. For sure the car is much better than last year because the nature of the formula has changed. So far things are making sense, but it’s still early days."
