Vettel’s debut a ‘unique experience’

Sebastian Vettel got behind the wheel of a Ferrari last weekend for the first time since making his move to Scuderia, an experience the German described as ‘unique’.

The four-time Drivers’ Championship winner completed almost 100 laps on the Fiorano circuit in an F2012 on Saturday, before spending most of Sunday in the simulator in an attempt to get accustomed to the procedures, commands and the power unit systems of a ‘virtual’ F14 T.

Then on Monday, the former Red Bull ace met with Chairman Sergio Marchionne, Team Principal Maurizio Arrivabene as well as various engineers with whom he analysed the data gathered from Saturday and Sunday’s sessions.

“Obviously it’s been a fantastic day to come here,” Vettel told www.ferrari.com.

“I remember I’ve been here a long time ago as a little child, driving through Maranello and trying to look over the fence, so to be here officially as part of the team felt fantastic. The possibility to drive the car and get to know the team was a unique experience.

“Obviously it’s a very different color for me, everybody is dressed in red, everything is red, but it’s really something special and I’m very much looking forward to the challenge that we took on for the next years.

“Obviously, its already winter time so it was quite cold doing some laps but it was a great feeling, it is always enjoyable to be in the car and, again, looking back to the years when I was 11 or 12, trying to look over the fence and trying to see a glimpse of Michael running on the track, well, today I was the one running and saw the tifosi around.

“You know there are a lot of fairytales about Ferrari and how it feels to drive a red car and in the end I can only confirm these fairytales, it’s not just a story, it’s a true legend that exists and it feels really, really special to become part of that and to be inside the car, to see the people coming, running to the track and trying to climb the walls to see the car, so there is definitely something very magic and something that happened today which I will never forget.”