Although Sebastian Vettel did not top the timing screens at the end of his final day of the first Formula 1 preseason in the Ferrari SF90 this week, he remains as satisfied with the car as he was after his first run on Monday when he topped the timing screens.
Vettel again confirmed that he is impressed by the new car and coupled to the mileage attained over the past three days, it would be fair to say that the SF90 is pretty useful out-the-box and also bulletproof.
The Scuderia reported that the German completed 80 laps in the morning and a further 54 in the afternoon, thus completing the planned distance on the programme ahead of schedule. After three days, the SF90 has done 460 laps of the Barcelona-Catalunya Circuit.
Vettel’s best effort on Wednesday came just before the lunch break – 1:18.350 was good enough for fourth on the timesheets, six-tenths of a second shy of the top time set by Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat.
The four times F1 World Champion summed up, “It was good to be back in the car today and put some more mileage under my belt. Again, we had a busy day and managed to complete our programme, which included a few new items, compared to Monday.”
“We tried a few things around also focusing on set-up and I can only confirm the positive impression I had on day one. Having now put 303 laps in the bag I feel comfortable to say we are satisfied with how the car is progressing,” added Vettel.
The first pre-season test in Barcelona ends tomorrow (Thursday) when Charles Leclerc will return to the cockpit for the final day.
The second test, at the Spanish Grand Prix venue runs from 26 February to 1 March before the season-opening Australian Grand Prix on 17 March.