After a dominant display last season, which saw Vettel claim the Drivers' title and Red Bull the Constructors' crown, the German and his team are the ones to beat this season. That, though, has not been evident based on a surface look at the pre-season timesheets.In seven days of testing, Red Bull have set the pace only once and that was on the very first day of testing at Valencia.
Since then, the Milton Keynes-based team has seemingly dropped down the order with Vettel finishing the final day at Jerez in eighth place, 2.390s off the pace.
However, the German isn't fazed, insisting that little can be deduced from the lap times as the teams are running different programmes with different tyres and fuel loads.
"It is almost impossible to know where we stand," he told the official F1 website. "Especially during the day it is almost impossible to learn what programme and what tyres everybody is on so we definitely focus on ourselves.
"In the evening, when the running is over, for sure you look for information from the other teams, but hardly at all during the time when the session is on."
The first two pre-season outings have given the drivers a taste of this year's regulations, which include KERS, moveable rear wings and the new Pirelli tyres.
The Red Bull driver admits it's a bit of an adjustment as the drivers have more to do than ever before.
"It's rather easy to get used to them, but of course this year you are busier than in the previous years and you have to evaluate where and when you use them.
"With degrading tyres the car's behaviour changes, so you have to understand when it's best to use the wing because it doesn't make sense to use it automatically always at the same spot."
Source: Planet-F1
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