The New Ferrari SF90

Sebastian Vettel experienced a perfect test day with his new company car – the Ferrari SF90. In the end, fastest time and lap king in Barcelona.

Sebastian Vettel (31) had to visibly restrain himself. You could tell that he didn’t want be too positive to avoid alerting the competition too much.

He tried but he failed. After the official press conference on the first day of testing it was clear to everyone that the Ferrari Star is completely satisfied with his new car.

Ferrari SF90 First Tests

Straight from Vettel’s mouth, it sounds like this:

“The day was almost perfect today, the car worked from the first lap. Yesterday, at the shakedown, I already had a good feeling. Today, that feeling was confirmed and reinforced – an amazing team effort.”

Even the new aerodynamic rules with wider front and larger rear wings couldn’t stop Ferrari’s development efforts.

“We were already able to regain some of the speed loss caused by the new rules,” Vettel reveals.

“The car feels good and robust. We were already able to start working on the tires and to try out a few things – it was like a child’s play.”

A statement that must shock the competition. F1 Insider listened to Ferrari’s competition.

“It’s impressive how they roll out a new car and are immediately up to speed,” they say at Red Bull. They calculated that the Ferrari should have half of a second speed advantage to Mercedes right now.

Vettel’s mood perfectly fits into the picture observers could get on the first days of testing:

“I think we can all finish the day with a good feeling. I didn’t expect the car to be so enduring. A very special day, indeed, and I’ll be texting a positive message back to Maranello.”

In the end, he lowers his guard a bit and adds: “Yes, it was the best kick-off I’ve ever had so far, but that doesn’t mean much.”

To dampen everyone’s expectations he found at least one thing to criticize:

“The new front wing is ugly.” But he also admits: “At least it is faster than it looks.”