Kimi Raikkonen has said he can feel an immediate improvement in Ferrari’s 2015 car over last year’s after the third day of Jerez testing. And it’s caught world champions Mercedes’ attention as well.
Ferrari-powered cars have topped the times on all three days so far, with Raikkonen’s new teammate Sebastian Vettel fastest for the first two days in a row while Sauber’s Felipe Nasr was quickest today. And the Finnish 2007 champion was very clear the SF15-T was a big step forward from the F14T which ill-suited his driving style, declaring “it’s a new car”. He went on praise the team’s efforts, saying that “The whole team has done a good job over the winter after last year and the difficult times. It was a positive first day, lot of improvements in areas that we have difficulties.”
While many have pointed to Mercedes’ 150+ lap runs on Sunday and today as signs they are the ones to beat, Nico Rosberg admitted that the Ferrari’s consistently good pace had made the team wary. “Of course we are keeping an eye on the opposition and Ferrari have been an eye-opener for us during the last couple of days,” he said. The German insisted that Mercedes’ focus was just on ensuring their car’s reliability, though Rosberg’s engine cutting out before the hairpin today follows the water system issues that forced Lewis Hamilton’s running to be cut short yesterday. “We did find some weaknesses in the car already, but they’re going to be easy to fix, so we’re on the right track,” he told a press conference. “We also had telemetry problems with the car not sending the data back to the team from the car, and that’s always a bit of a risk. Still, we are confident we will start the season well and be strong in development.”
