Sebastian Vettel says the mileage he was able to complete on Tuesday was more encouraging than his headline-grabbing time, as he received his first taste of Ferrari’s SF71-H.
Vettel took over testing duties from team-mate Kimi Raikkonen and set the best time in cold conditions at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, recording a 1:19.673.
However, Vettel was more encouraged by his mileage, as he lapped the circuit 98 times – more than any other driver – in spite of the unseasonably cold and slippery conditions.
“It’s cold, it’s very cold,” Vettel said when asked for his impressions of the day’s running.
“So I think the most important thing if you look at the table we did nearly 100 laps.
“Considering that it was snowing also at the end of the day it’s OK. It’s very difficult to get the tyres to work and I think everybody is having the same issues.
“It’s only three or four degrees and the asphalt is 10 degrees so it’s very, very cold; it’s not the conditions that we normally run.
“I think the car is working, we didn’t have any problems reliability-wise.
“Have we made a step forward in terms of performance? I don’t know yet but in terms of general operation it’s been very smooth so it’s good to come here, switch on the car and be able to run. The limiting factor was the weather.”
Vettel was reluctant to be drawn on making comparisons between the SF71-H and its predecessor, commenting: “I hope [the car is better] but it’s very difficult to say at this stage.
“First of all, it’s much cooler than last year. Second, the asphalt is completely different. So they are two major things that make it impossible to compare at this point.”
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