Sebastian Vettel has conceded that Red Bull Racing still needs to do more to get itself in the hunt for regular race wins, but thinks it is making good progress in getting there in testing at Mugello.
Although Vettel leads the World Championship after four races thanks to his win in Bahrain, the reigning champion has openly admitted that his team's RB8 is not yet the pacesetter in F1. That is why he thinks it will be crucial for Red Bull Racing to crunch through the analysis of this week's test before the Spanish Grand Prix so it can work out exactly how to deliver the necessary improvements.
"Obviously it is good to win races, that is our target, but nevertheless we know we have a lot of catching up to do," said Vettel about the start to his campaign. "That is the idea here at the test, to do a lot of laps and to get some mileage and sort out some of the stuff we have been testing at previous events, and will do in the future. But much more important is the analysis after this test to see what happens to this car."
With F1 being so close this year – as proven by the first four races delivering four different winners – Vettel thinks it unlikely that his team is going to rediscover the kind of form that allowed it to dominate in 2010.
"Dominant is always a very difficult word," he explained. "We had four races this year, and we had one win. All in all, I think the other races we had we were competitive. Surely not strong enough to win, but not disastrous enough either.
"We can be happy with what we have achieved so far, but we want more. That is why we are here working hard to find new parts to improve the performance of this car."