Ferrari not sure if its car is faster than Mercedes

Ferrari’s engineering chief Jock Clear states he can’t evaluate whether the Scuderia’s car is now faster than Mercedes after Sebastian Vettel claimed triumph in the season-opening Australian GP.

Following the race, Mercedes executive director Toto Wolff stated: “Some you win and some you lose and Ferrari had the quicker car.”

However Clear doubted about that claim, stating it was impossible to distinguish the evidence of the opening round in the Vettel-Lewis Hamilton battle for triumph.

“If they ‘d got into a close fight at some stage we would have seen who was quicker,” Clear informed Sky Sports F1.

“However, truthfully, I cannot tell you which was the quicker automobile today, since I do not believe either of them saw the opportunity to truly pile on the pressure.

“Early on, Lewis was managing the speed since that was the ideal thing to do. And once Seb was ahead he was managing the pace.

“We really still do not know the answer to how fast we are in absolute terms. We understand that today we won.”