Australian GP win a 'positive surprise,' says Sebastian Vettel

Sebastian Vettel called Ferrari’s win in the Australian GP a “positive surprise” after Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes had dominated qualifying.

The German stressed that the success was the result of a lot of hard work through some difficult times.

“I think for all of us it is a positive surprise,” said Vettel. “I think the road we followed is pretty simple: we didn’t look left; we didn’t look right; we didn’t look forward; we didn’t look back. I think we focused on what we had to do at the time. Obviously there has been a lot of up and down, left and right the last 12 months, but I think, especially the last couple of months, things calmed down, and we just tried to do our job.

“Obviously there has been a big reshuffle but, as I said, people are happy, happy to work, working with each other. That’s the key. At the end there’s no shortcut, you need to get the job done and invest a lot of hours thinking. Passion, I think, is a great driver back in the factory, also here. I think up and down the pitlane the amount of hours the guys are covering is mad. I said it years ago joining Ferrari, there seems to be an extra passion just working for the Prancing Horse and, I think, just focusing on ourselves really has been the big difference. I think a key to deliver a great car, which we obviously have.”

Regarding the performance of the SF70H, he added: “The speeds look alright, both on the straights and in the corners we are competitive. As I said, I was able to stay with Lewis. They had a little bit the upper hand yesterday but I knew we had much better balance yesterday than on Friday, so I knew in the race anything can happen. It’s the first race of the season, I’m surprised we didn’t have a Safety Car, but anything can happen. I wanted to stay in there and make it clear we had the pace. It was nice to see that we have and, as I say, to get the job done.”

He also stressed that the team learned a lot from its difficult season in 2016.

“In the end it was clear that when we started off two years ago, three years ago that there’s a lot to do, a lot to reshuffle. I think the team was at a low. The spirit was very good in the first year, in 2015. I think last year was a very good year. Obviously not for the results, but in terms of growing the team. It’s good also to hit some lows and go through difficult periods – even though it pretty much sucks – but if you look race-by-race it’s not great, but seeing what happens in the background is important.

“I think people always kept the belief and, as I said, the last six months have been very calm. We have done our work and it starts to slowly pay off. Now it peaks and we are at the top of this Grand Prix, but that’s a small achievement. If you look at who we are up against, I think Mercedes has been phenomenal the last couple of years: incredible team effort, incredibly by both drivers. I think Valtteri just fitted in and kept doing a fantastic job for the team. No weak link from the outside, not that we can see. They will be the ones to beat, but for sure today I’m just happy and we take it as a team.”

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