Sebastian Vettel praised the reliability of Ferrari’s SF71-H after he racked up substantial mileage o the penultimate day of pre-season testing.
Vettel set the standard both in terms of times and laps, as he recorded a new unofficial track record, posting a 1:17.182, almost nine-tenths clear of Daniel Ricciardo’s benchmark from the previous day.
Vettel, though, was more encouraged by his long stint in the car, having racked up 188 laps across the course of the two four-hour sessions.
“We still need to work on the performance and feeling,” said Vettel, whose 2017 title challenge was partly derailed by two key engine issues in the Asian spell of the campaign.
“I think in terms of reliability, it's rock solid. Hats off to all the guys in the factory.
“There's so much planning involved and trying to squeeze out everything. Fingers crossed it stays like that. It's the major ingredient if you want to do well.
“There’s been a lot of [lap] times, what’s important is the car was working all day. We did nearly 200 laps so that was good!”
Vettel moved to play down expectations heading into the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, insisting it is the “wrong time” to make any substantial evaluations over the pecking order.
“Obviously our target is to be up front but this is the wrong time to say anything,” he said.
“You’ve seen more cars going round than I have this week. I had more time to look at the timesheets as well so I’m sure in the next couple of days we will know a little bit more heading to Australia.
“For now the important thing is we know our car is working the way we want, the way we expect.
“It’s always difficult to know [at testing], these days so many variables. It used to be only fuel and tyres, now it’s energy, and modes, whatever. So it’s the wrong time to draw any conclusions.”
