Nico Rosberg believes Ferrari has made the biggest step forward of Mercedes rivals and reckons the Italian outfit could be challenging for race wins.
Ferrari has regularly topped the times during pre-season testing and was again near the top on Friday. In fact Kimi Raikkonen was just 0.010 off the quickest time set by Daniel Ricciardo.
Rosberg believes Ferrari’s testing form is a good indication that they’ve made a big step forward and he remains cautious of the potential threat they could pose.
“For sure yes,” he said when asked if Ferrari could be a threat. “Definitely our eyes are wide open at the moment.
“It’s clear that the others have really stepped up their game, [the] lap times are surprising to us. In relation it seems Ferrari has made the biggest step at the moment.”
The German sat out the afternoon session because of a neck injury, instead handing the car over to team-mate Lewis Hamilton. He reckons his seating position may have been the cause.
“I know the cause of it, it was my position in the car, which I got a bit wrong. I didn’t realise, so [I was] just being careful but it was all fine.
“I liked it different but I can’t drive the one I like, my neck doesn’t like that one! I changed it in the winter, it’s incredible how a fine line it is sometimes, it was centimetres in this case and it changed everything.”
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