Vettel certain new car is a step forward

The German has been one of the surprises of the year, hauling his STR2B in the top 10 in qualifying in Australia and then shining again in practice for the Malaysia Grand Prix this weekend.

But although that strong form appears better than the version of Red Bull Racing's RB4 that the team plan to run for the first time in Turkey, Vettel is not worried about the situation.

He is convinced that the STR3 will be a quicker car and allow him to impress even more.

"I think the new car is a step forward," said the German. "Otherwise there would be no reason to introduce the new car. We are also going to do some testing with it first and then we will see. I am sure it is faster."

Vettel has explained that his team had no option but to run their old car, because they lacked the resources to get their new version ready in time for the start of the season.

When asked by autosport.com about whether or not the speed of the car was simply because the STR2B was so well sorted, Vettel said: "If everybody else is struggling like hell, then yes it would be.

"But apart from that, in the past you have seen everyone adapt to their new car quickly enough from race one onwards, especially teams like McLaren-Mercedes and Ferrari.

"Ferrari had quite a difficult start, but generally all the teams brought their new car and they are more or less ready.

"For us it is an advantage to run the old car because we would have been quite late with the new car, and it would have taken some time to understand how it was working - maybe a couple of tests and two or three races. So instead of wasting that time, we started with the old car."

After his fifth fastest time on Friday, Vettel thinks that getting through to Q3 could be a possibility again in Sepang.

"I haven't seen what the others have done so far, but getting into Q2 should be in the bag, and then we will see. High up in Q2 is possible, or it would be ice to have a bit longer on Saturday afternoon."