Sebastian Vettel has tested twice already in 2016 albeit with last year's car, nevertheless he is playing down ambitions of his boss to win the opneing round of the championship in Melbourne.
Indeed, while most of his rivals remain in their winter slumber, Vettel recently ran a 2014 Ferrari at Fiorano. And this week at an artificially-watered Paul Ricard, he was running in last year's red car for Pirelli.
As for the 2016 machine, however, Vettel told reporters in France: "We are starting to assemble it. I've seen how it should look, but I have not yet seen it in one piece."
Vettel also admitted he also has a kilo or two to shift after a relaxing Christmas season with his young and has yet not even set eyes on Ferrari's new car.
His boss Sergio Marchionne has set Ferrari the ambitious target of de-throning Mercedes this year, and Vettel said he is happy to try to achieve it.
"It is in our nature that we want to win," he said. "We have a big team but I guess that if you asked each individual employee, most of them would say we want to win. We also know this is an ambitious goal."
"We have not forgotten that the gap to Mercedes last year was still quite big. Now it will depend on what kind of work we do in the winter," said Vettel, "and starting on the right foot from the first test."
President Marchionne, however, says Ferrari should win immediately this year, beginning with the season opener in Melbourne.
"Australia is one world championship race of 21," said a more cautious Vettel. "If we win there, fabulous. If that is not possible, we want to get as many points there as possible. It's a very long season."
Meanwhile, Vettel was on duty in southern France testing the Pirelli wet tyres for 2016 and at the end of a day, in which he completed over two hours of track time, he said, "It’s always useful to drive a car. It was fun, even if, with a lot of different prototype tyres."
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