“The car is reliable which is already good,” he told his official website. “The first impressions have been already quite positive. We were drove out of the box and everything went well, so there is potential. We are heading into the season much better prepared than in the past two years, and we can fully concentrate onto the development of our car.
“The speed is promising. I hope we can show that in Melbourne. We were able to drive a lot during the tests and therefore learnt a lot too, and we certainly have made a step forward. I would just want to wait until after the first races to judge how big this step is and how much it is worth compared to our competitors.”
“We experienced last year that you can be very wrong relying on the data coming out of the winter tests,” the seven-time world champion explained. “And because we can see that the field will be very narrow this year. I do not have a clear picture yet. What we can say though is that the gap between the several teams will not be as big as it has been last year.
“Victory to me is unlikely, I see Red Bull in front. Behind them it will be tight, and you can be either hero or zero very quickly. It will come down a lot to the ability of how well you set up your car to the respective track.”
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