Australian Grand Prix – Friday for learning

Seb and Kimi working on car balance
Melbourne, 24 March – The first day of a new world championship is always a special event, but for Scuderia Ferrari, practice in Albert Park was simply an opportunity to work through a planned programme. For the SF70H that meant mainly working on set-up and balance. Sebastian and Kimi tried all the specifications of tyre that Pirelli has supplied here, starting on the Soft before then using the Super and Ultrasoft in the second session.
The dirty track conditions and the different fuel loads used make it impossible to give an accurate assessment of the relative performance levels. As Vettel explained at the end of practice, “on Friday, it is always difficult to say much. Anyway, it was nice to be back in the cockpit again. In the first session, we had a few small problems which slowed us down a bit, but things went better in the second one. As for the balance, today wasn’t bad, but there is still room for improvement. The lap times don’t mean anything. Only tomorrow will we find out what the score is.”
Raikkonen expressed pretty much the same sentiments. “We can be pleased, because overall the day didn’t go badly. We learned a lot of things and now we know in which areas we have to improve. As for performance, you cannot compare it to winter testing, partly because this is a bit of an unusual track and doesn’t produce a clear picture of the situation.”
Seb completed 45 laps over the two sessions (10+35,) while Kimi racked up 16 in the first part and 30 in the second.