Sebastian Vettel mentioned he won’t publicly examine Aston Martin’s Mercedes engine to Ferrari’s out of respect to his former group.

Vettel joined Aston Martin for its return F1 mission this yr, after his six-year stint with Ferrari got here to an finish. It’s his first time driving a Mercedes energy unit — the German producer has received each championship for the reason that introduction of V6 turbo engines in 2014.

Vettel has been driving his new automotive at preseason testing in Bahrain.

When requested to check the Mercedes to Ferrari, he mentioned: “It is clearly completely different however I am not going to check, simply out of respect to completely different producers.

“It is one thing that I’ve by no means carried out up to now and I will not do now.”

Vettel struggled in his remaining years at Ferrari, with a collection of spins highlighting his unease with the steadiness of the Italian group’s vehicles. The four-time world champion was cagey over the small print of his driving model however mentioned he feels assured the identical points won’t repeat themselves this yr.

“Once more, I cannot disclose too many particulars. However we can have the automotive that we have now beneath us and we have now to adapt, so I believe that is not an issue. I am certain it is effective.

“We work very laborious to make sure we have now a fast automotive. Will probably be a protracted yr, a difficult yr to separate the assets for this yr and subsequent yr. A lot of challenges however the principle problem proper now could be to have an honest check.”

Aston Martin’s opening check has seen two prolonged delays within the storage, however Vettel is inspired by what he is seen from the automotive thus far.

“The final 24 hours have definitely been very busy for myself, for everybody within the storage, for the entire group. Sadly we did not have a really productive morning, we had a problem with the gearbox we needed to change and that value a little bit of time.

“That is what occurred and sadly we did not get lots of laps in. So this morning was not of nice use when it comes to monitor time.

“Yesterday although was very attention-grabbing. The automotive feels very promising however there’s nonetheless lots of issues I have to get used to. The automotive is completely different to what I ran [last year] and it is a completely different energy unit as nicely so every part feels a bit completely different and takes a little bit little bit of getting used to.”

After testing concludes on Sunday, the Method One season will start with the Bahrain Grand Prix on March 28.