Sebastian Vettel claims he is not “worried” about the strength of his and Ferrari’s rivals but is taking his time before making any judgements.
On Thursday, the Scuderia and Mercedes both unveiled their newest creations in launches at Maranello and Silverstone respectively, with the two teams expected to fight it out for the 2018 Formula 1 title.
Both cars have followed a pattern of evolution rather than overhaul in terms of their design and, looking at his own SF71H at least, the four-time world champion is confident of building on the strong progress Ferrari made last year.
“Well, I think we always have some positive expectation,” he said. “Work on this started quite early during last season to look after this year’s car and this is the result.
“We’ve worked very hard and we think in the right way,” Vettel continued. “The next few weeks will be very important to understand if all the things we’ve thought of start making sense.
“We’re confident the car will be good to drive and I can’t wait to get a feel.”
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The German doesn’t expect the Italian team to go into the new season as favourites, however, claiming “Mercedes remains the reference”, and as for the likes of Red Bull, who revealed the RB14 at the start of the week, Vettel remained calm.
“It’s still difficult to judge. The quality and angle of the photos plays a big role, so I will only form a first judgement in the tests,” he stated. “But so far I can say that I have not seen anything in the others that makes me worried.”