Vettel: Ferrari's priority is to confirm

Sebastian Vettel could hardly hope for a better debut at Ferrari. The four-time world champion won the last step of the podium of the Australian GP by showing himself the fastest after the Mercedes de Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.

While Kimi Räikkönen retired following a loose wheel, Sebastian Vettel gave the Scuderia its first podium since second place in Fernando Alonso at the last Hungarian GP. “It’s not going to be easy to catch up with the Mercedes given the gaps”, nevertheless underlined the German who finished half a minute behind the winner. “The most important thing is that we finished just behind. We have to confirm this at the next race (March 29 in Sepang, Malaysia), this is the priority. »

However, Sebastian Vettel is aware that the Mercedes lead will be difficult to make up for. “ We have to be realistic, it was a weekend for Mercedes. The gap may be a little smaller at the next Grand Prix but it could also be worse."

Discover the analysis of the Australian Grand Prix carried out by our special correspondents in issue 2003 of AUTOhebdo, available from tomorrow evening in digital version on all platforms, and from Wednesday on newsstands.