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Generally most kids are happy when they return to school after a long holiday, but clearly that was not the case for Sebastian Vettel on his return to Formula 1 action in Melbourne, as an eagle eyed photographer snapped photos (above) of a pensive and brooding driver in the Ferrari pit garage during the course of the day.
The body language shown by the quadruple F1 World Champion raising the inevitable question: what’s bugging Seb?
Nevertheless the Italian outfit are not reading too much into the times set during the first two practice sessions of the Australian Grand Prix weekend, keeping their team-speak to the bare minimum – with both team chief Maurizio Arrivabene and Vettel revealing very little on a day where it was a Mercedes that again set the pace.
Arrivabene revealed little, “We were working mainly on car balance. This morning we were struggling a bit more than normal. But then in the afternoon we were still working on the car balance, but nothing different versus our Friday programme.”
Lewis Hamilton topped the timing sheets in both sessions, faster than Vettel by half a second in the afternoon stanza – both drivers using Pirelli ultrasofts for their fast laps.
Vettel summed up, “Overall it has been OK, but we had some small troubles during first practice, which cost us some track time [as] it took a bit longer to get into the groove. My car doesn’t feel as good as it should or can.”
“I’m confident we can do something. I think the car feels good. It hasn’t changed much, I mean it’s only two weeks ago we got out of the car but it’s good to be back here and as I said we can still improve,” added Vettel.
Kimi Raikkonen was also revealing little as he dug into the book of predictable quotes, “We can be pleased, because overall the day didn’t go badly. We learned a lot of things and now we know in which areas we have to improve.”
“As for performance, you cannot compare it to winter testing, partly because this is a bit of an unusual track and doesn’t produce a clear picture of the situation,” added the veteran Finn.
Meanwhile, perhaps qualifying on Saturday, at Albert Park, will shed some light on Vettel’s sombre demeanour.
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