Ferrari's Vettel slams speculation around F1 team boss Arrivabene

Reports in the Italian media suggested Arrivabene's position is in doubt due to Ferrari not winning any of the opening four races of the season, with technical director James Allison touted as a potential replacement.

When asked about Arrivabene's position at the Spanish Grand Prix on Friday, Vettel said: "He's the boss. He's doing a very good job, he's leading the team.

"I know there has been some rumours and some bullshit lately, but we are very happy that he is with us and not with somebody else.

"He is reachable, accessible for all the people.

"He spends a lot of time with the team, not just here but also in Maranello."

'PRETTY GOOD' START ON TRACK

Vettel believes Ferrari's day of practice could have been better at Barcelona, but he also feels the team is capable of causing Mercedes some headaches this weekend.

The German topped the first session as Ferrari took softer tyres than Mercedes in the morning, while Kimi Raikkonen was only 0.2 seconds behind Nico Rosberg on the same tyre compounds in the afternoon.

"This afternoon was a bit more tricky for us, not as good as the morning, but we can still work on the car and improve overnight," said Vettel.

"Usually we are quite strong at doing that so even if today was not the perfect day, it should be better tomorrow.

"It's Friday, so we need to be careful with our judgements.

"The first impression of the pace was good, whether we can confirm it tomorrow depends what other people were doing today.

"We know that our opposition is very strong, but we have a couple of things coming this weekend that should make it a bit more of a challenge for them."