It’s all about the number five for Sebastian Vettel when the Formula One season kicks off on Sunday with the Australian Grand Prix.
It is the personal start number of the German on his Ferrari car, and a 2018 title would be Vettel’s fifth overall, five years after taking four straight between 2010 and 2013 at Red Bull.
His main rival is again holder Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes who is also seeking a fifth world championship.
But while another trophy would be more of a bonus for the Briton, the pressure will be on the 30-year-old Vettel to finally give Ferrari a first drivers’ title in 11 years since Kimi Raikkonen’s success in 2007.
Fernando Alonso failed to end the rot during his term and Vettel is now also already starting his fourth season at the famed team.
He did better than expected with three victories in his first year 2015 but 2016 saw zero wins before Ferrari rebounded in 2017, with Vettel taking five grands prix but falling short again after leading the way for the first half of the season.
Now Vettel comes to Australia – where he won 12 months ago – with lots of confidence after pre-season testing in Barcelona.
“I think we’re starting from a good base with our SF71H car,” he said on his website last week.
“Now we’ll have to work on development to further explore and improve its potential. I have a lot of confidence in our team, I know how skilled and committed the guys in Maranello are.
“I can’t wait to be in Australia, because once we get on track there, we will all be driving and racing under the same conditions. And, as I said before, I have confidence in our car.”
Sunday’s race will be the 200th for the German who will be seeking his 100th podium finish and 48th race win, plus a 51st pole.
That makes him second best in the current 20-driver line-up, with Hamilton better on 62 grand prix top spots, 117 podiums and 72 poles.
Mercedes with Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas should be the rivals to beat, and possibly resurgent Red Bull as well with Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen.
Some believe Vettel has made bigger strides at Ferrari in three years than mighty Michael Schumacher who took five years to win the first of five titles with the team in 2000 for a record tally of seven overall.
“It would be fantastic if it works out in the end,” Vettel said.
Battling Bottas looks for a step up Down Under
Valtteri Bottas knows he needs to step up his game from last season if he is to have any chance of keeping his place at Mercedes and has targeted a top-two finish at this weekend’s season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
The 28-year-old won only three races last year despite getting a drive for the dominant Mercedes team alongside world champion Lewis Hamilton. With a host of other drivers coveting the Mercedes seat for next year when Bottas’s contract is up, the Finn knows this term he has to produce – starting at Albert Park on Sunday.
“I do have big goals,” he told reporters at the track yesterday.
“I need to try and step up my game and want to start the season well here in Melbourne. Last year, I was third in the race so for sure need to do better than that.”
Before last year’s podium, Bottas had a pretty poor record in Australia with 14th, eighth and fifth places in his three races for former team Williams. He failed to even start the 2015 race in Melbourne after suffering a back injury in qualifying which required an overnight stay in hospital. “I haven’t found it to be one of my strongest circuits in the past,” he added. “You know, I’ve always had a bit of mixed results but that’s something I want to change. I can’t have bad races for myself.
“I want to be consistent in every place, so I think there were some positives in the race last year, so hopefully we can build on that and be quick in the qualifying as well.”
His teammate Hamilton has won only twice in Australia and finished second for the second year in a row last season on his way to his fourth world title.
Bottas is very much aware that his primary function as Mercedes chase a fifth successive constructors’ and drivers’ title double is to step into the breach should something go wrong for the Briton.
“If Lewis is having a bad day, or bad race for any reason then I need to be able to fight for the win of the race,” he said.
“So I’m just going to really focus on my performance, go day-by-day, session-by-session, lap-by-lap and try to be at my best every single time I’m on track.”
This file photo taken on March 6, 2018 shows Ferrari’s German driver Sebastian Vettel driving at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo on the outskirts of Barcelona during the first day of the second week of tests for the Formula One Grand Prix season. (AFP)
