New Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto admits it would be foolish to assume Ferrari are faster than Mercedes based on testing.
The Italian titans, in the hands of four time world champion Sebastian Vettel and highly rated rookie Charles Leclerc outperformed their more illustrious rivals Mercedes in two weeks of pre season testing at the Circuit de Catalunya in Spain.
Vettel recorded the fastest time of any driver in testing while Ferrari also had the reliability and performance to rack up more laps than Mercedes.
Even Lewis Hamilton has admitted that the Ferrari car looks good with the defending champions commenting that the Ferrari car could be as much as half a second quicker than Mercedes heading into the first race of the season next week in Albert Park, Australia.
However, Binotto says testing counts for very little in terms of the season’s performance and Mercedes will be very close to Ferrari.
‘I’m happy to know that Hamilton believes we are faster, but I believe they are very strong,’ Binotto said of Mercedes.
‘I believe that Mercedes will be very, very strong in Australia, and I think it would be completely wrong to think we are faster than them.
‘I’m not expecting them to be behind us. I think they will be very, very close.’