Ferrari chairman Sergio Marchionne has set the Italian outfit the target of winning the very first race of the season, believing it will define the remainder of their championship, but Sebastian Vettel has played down its importance.
The German, whilst sharing Marchionne's ambition and determination, says not winning in Australia isn't the end of their hopes for the year and his aim is simply to get close enough to the front-running Mercedes team to prove they've made progress over the winter period.
"It's natural that we all want to win – the team is quite big, there's a lot of people and if you ask everyone, I think [they all agree] our target is to win," said Vettel on Tuesday during Pirelli's wet tyre test.
Vettel managed to win the second race of the 2015 season in Malaysia and went on to win a further two grands prix during the course of the season, putting him in title contention for much of the year, however Ferrari remained some distance off Mercedes, and Vettel's aim is to see that gap slashed.
"We know it's very ambitious [to win], we know that the gap has been quite big last year. I think we did a good job over the season to come closer.
"This year we have some changes and we will have to see – obviously the testing is crucial to start on the right foot and then we go from there.
"But Australia is one race from 21," he cautioned. "If you win there, it's great, if not – you try to finish as close as possible to the top step and collect as many points. And after that it's a long year."
Discussion about this post