Vettel feels lost but thinks it's close at the front

Sebastian Vettel admits to feeling lost on his first day of winter testing but thinks it's pretty close at the front.

One had to sympathise with Vettel on Friday night. The Red Bull driver finally got behind the wheel of the RB6 in Jerez but had to endure the frustration of persistent rain and limited running on his first day back at work, and it was no surprise to hear the German admit afterwards he had little idea how competitive his new car actually is.

The simple facts of Vettel's opening day of winter testing is that he completed 59 laps and finished almost two seconds adrift of P1 with a fastest lap of 1:21.783. But quite how much, if anything, can be gleaned from those statistics is questionable given that Vettel had to run for most of the day in damp and wet conditions. And quite how much Vettel gained from the day is equally questionable, though, in typical fashion, he strove to put a brave face on matters afterwards.

"It was okay. After three months it was my first run and we knew it would start raining early so we didn't mess around with checking the car too long. We went straight to the circuit to do some laps. It was a cold start for me but it's good to know you are still able to do it. In the car I was pretty happy," he reported afterwards to Autosport.

Of particular interest, however, was his admission that he was almost clueless in determining the current pecking order in F1 but has the impression that it is 'very close' at the front.

"You look at the laptimes sometimes you might think it's easy to see who is on a full tank and who is not, but then people are playing around, so it doesn't help.

"You are pretty lost sometimes, because you might be three seconds off but you might be quick. This year you could be three seconds off the pace on Friday and still be the quickest, but you won't know until Saturday when we go to qualy. I think it will be quite exciting.

"They are all more or less close together, within a couple of tenths, so Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes and us I think it's pretty close. But I also think the Toro Rosso looks quite strong. There's a lot of things happening until Bahrain, and a lot of parts coming for the teams, but so far it looks very close."

Source: Vettel feels lost but thinks it's close at the front - Planet-F1 News from planet-f1.com