Sebastian Vettel took victory in the Australian Grand Prix in 2017, and is hopeful the SF71-H can give him the chance to repeat in 2018, and the German admits confidence is high after a positive pre-season testing programme for Scuderia Ferrari.
Vettel was beaten into second place in the Drivers’ Championship last season by Lewis Hamilton, with the duo now vying to become only the third driver after Juan Manuel Fangio and Michael Schumacher to win five titles, although there will be others possibly in the hunt.
Now the German is eager to win the Championship for the first time with Ferrari, with his first four titles coming during his days with Red Bull Racing, and Vettel admits it will give him a lot of satisfaction should it come to fruition.
“I’m excited to kick off the season, get into the car and race,” said Vettel. “We have every reason to be confident as our car is great, we have a great team and we came here well prepared, even if, ideally, you would want to be able to test more during the winter – and there are many things to come.
“Of course, around this point you don’t know what the others have done so far. Australia has treated us well generally: we won here last year, nearly won the year before and got on the podium in 2015.
“The key to the championship will be to have a strong car at the beginning and at the end of the season and to try and be competitive at all races. Now obviously, the best satisfaction is to win with Ferrari, the greatest team with the greatest history in the paddock. To win with Ferrari, beating the best, is my target.”
