Vettel taking positives from F1 testing despite limited mileage

Sebastian Vettel is taking the positives from Formula 1 pre-season testing despite reliability gremlins impacting his mileage in Bahrain.

Vettel’s running on the final two days of testing was curtailed by reliability issues.

A gearbox related issue on day two meant the German managed just 10 laps.

Vettel fared slightly better on the final day as he completed 57 laps, but suffering a boot presure issue which ended his session prematurely.

Only Roy Nissany - Williams’ test driver - completed fewer laps than Vettel across the three days of testing.

Despite the lack of mileage, Vettel feels the running he’s been able to do has helped him. 

When asked if it was a positive final day of testing despite the reliability issues, Vettel said: “No, but still I think it was a very productive day; I got a lot of laps and got to get to know the car better, so that was very useful and I really liked that. It did help me a great deal.

“Unfortunately we didn’t get everything done that we planned on but yeah still, the first race is for everyone with such limited amount of testing. It will still be a lot that we have to, everybody will have to learn about their cars [and] these tyres in particular.”

Vettel concedes he hasn't been able to fully adapt to his new team due to the lack of running and shorterned testing period but insists he's “getting there”. 

“As I said, every lap helps, so every run that I do seems to give me more and more answers,” Vettel added. “I’m playing around, trying lots of stuff; some stuff works ,some other stuff doesn’t, some things require breaking a habit. It’s clear, I’ve been in the same car for six years and then you change. 

“That’s part of the game and it’s also exciting so lots of new things for me to learn, see how people work, the approach, understanding set-up and so on so it’s been really productive for me and really useful. New people, struggling with the names but I’m getting there.”