Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel is confident the team have closed the gap on Mercedes during the off-season but he is not applying any extra pressure on himself or the team to win the first race of the season in Australia.
Speaking to La Gazzetta Dello Sport after the wet tyre test at Paul Ricard this week Vettel said: “Winning in Australia would be fantastic, but our goal is to be at the top at the end of the season.
“The development of the new car continues and we will certainly try to win in Melbourne, or earn as many points as possible. Given there are 21 races, if someone asked me whether I would like to win right away or if I would rather win the title, well there is no comparison.”
With four world titles already to his name, it’s clear from his comments the German is targeting a fifth in 2016 after enjoying a good first season with Ferrari scoring 278 points, compared to the 167 he scored during the 2014 season with Red Bull.
This bodes well for the upcoming season with Vettel far more settled into the team, he seemingly has a good relationship between himself, Kimi Raikkonen and the rest of the team.
A lot of positive comments and interview’s have come out of Ferrari through the winter so far, whether that is just a smoke screen to scare Mercedes no one knows but with just over a month until the first full test we don’t have to wait long.
