Australian GP: Alonso says practice confirmed Ferrari is stronger
Fernando Alonso said Friday practice in Melbourne confirmed his belief that while Ferrari is in much better shape than a year ago, beating Red Bull will still be a very tall order
Ferrari team-mates Felipe Massa and Alonso were second and third behind Vettel in practice one and sixth and eighth in the afternoon.
After a winter too close to call, Vettel's practice performance installed him as a clear favourite for Australian Grand Prix victory, which Alonso said he had anticipated.
"I'm not expecting any major surprises here, we already knew we were not the quickest and that was confirmed today," he said.
"The car responds well, but we know there is still much to do if we want to fight with the very best."
But Ferrari design chief Nikolas Tombazis insisted it was still too early to say if Red Bull was clearly ahead.
"In terms of performance, we are approximately where we were expecting compared to Barcelona," he said.
"All that applied in Barcelona applies here during Friday practice and we are unable to comment on our pecking order relative to our competitors.
"Our performance is as we expected but we need to wait a bit more for definitive comments."
AUTOSPORT Australian GP coverage:
FP1 FP2 Qualifying Race Gallery Live commentary Official quotes
Share Or Save This Story
Did Bianchi have potential to become F1 world champion?
Autosport 75: Kubica's road to recovery and beyond
Autosport 75: When Red Bull had its own intra-team fight like Norris vs Piastri
Alonso has "no idea" what he’ll do when he eventually retires from F1
Alonso denies claim that Aston Martin's Hungarian GP upgrade will decide his F1 future
Aston Martin's plans for F1 2026 after upgrade-free Miami
Why Leclerc’s battle of the brakes has left him trailing his Ferrari team-mate
How Leclerc has changed his steering wheel software for the first time since joining Ferrari
Why Vasseur's steady hand is exactly what fervent Ferrari needs right now
WRC Estonia: Unbeatable Pajari leads after perfect Friday
"Not getting ahead of ourselves" - Why Norris was downbeat in Belgium despite F1 practice pace
Alpine explains Gasly's crash that red-flagged FP2
What we learned from Friday practice at the 2026 F1 Belgian GP
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments