Vettel: Our approach is unchanged

Sebastian Vettel met the press at Shanghai circuit on Thursday. Winning his first race for Scuderia Ferrari in Malaysia hasn’t changed his approach to the remainder of the season: “I think we’re realistic about where we are and what we want to achieve”, he said. “Targets haven’t changed. The victory we had in Sepang is a great result as a team but for the next race we haven’t changed our approach. We have to confirm that we have a strong package and a strong car and we’ll try to make sure that we stay ahead the people we stayed ahead the last couple of races, but knowing that Mercedes is in a very strong position.”

Asked whether Ferrari’s pace in the last race was a reaI indication of the car’s potential, Seb replied: “I think it was for real two weeks ago: I don’t think Mercedes backed off and everyone left. It has been nice but we had a couple of circumstances coming together. Most important of all, we managed to capitalize and get a very good result and win the race, but for the next races things can be up and down: we want to make sure that there are a lot of up and not so many downs as it is normal that at some races you’re more competitive than others.”

The four-time world champion reckons that it’s too early to make judgements: “We’ve had two races and usually you need at least a couple of races to understand where you are. I think we had a decent understanding, but the target is to confirm the fact that we vere close to the top class in Australia, fighting with Williams for the podium, and obviously in Sepang two weeks ago we were close enough to win, but – as I said – in general we want to make sure that we establish ourselves as the team behind Mercedes and it means that we stay ahead of strong teams like Williams and Red Bull for the entire season. The target is to ensure that the gap to Mercedes gests narrower and narrower.”