Vettel: We have a good base but need to keep developing

Sebastian Vettel believes his Ferrari team have a good starting point, but they need to keep developing their car to allow him to challenge for a fifth F1 world title.

Vettel topped the timesheets in testing, with a blistering lap, setting the unofficial lap record at the Circuit de Catalunya.

The German was in the title hunt until the latter part of the season last year, when a host of reliability issues and crashes allowed Lewis Hamilton to take the championship.

Vettel told the media: “I think we’re starting from a good base with our SF71H car.

“Now we’ll have to work on development to further explore and improve its potential.

“I have a lot of confidence in our team, I know how skilled and committed the guys in Maranello are.”

Vettel was more than happy with his testing exploits, saying: “We did a good job in terms of mileage. I have a personal best of 188 laps in one day, which is 875 kilometres.

“We did not experience any major issues with the car, and I had fun driving it.

“I can’t wait to be in Australia, because once we get on track there, we will all be driving and racing under the same conditions.

“And, as I said before, I have confidence in our car.”