Alfa Romeo boss about where he feels the team stacked up ahead of Australian GP. Alfa Romeo boss about where he feels the team stacked up ahead of Australian GP.

Alfa Romeo boss Fred Vasseur talks about where he feels the team stacked up ahead of Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne:

“It is difficult to know and to say and honestly I think even Sunday evening the picture won’t be a good one. All the teams are in a different situation in terms of preparation and so on, and if you have a look at the last 10 years, Melbourne is not very often representative of the season for different reasons. It is very early, the track is a green one and it is more about tyre management. Also the big topic is that the variation of temperature in Melbourne is always huge from one day to another one, and tyre management is never easy.” – he explained.

At the same time, Alfa Romeo boss Fred Vasseur thinks the top three teams will rapidly pull clear at the front of Formula 1 again, despite the gap appearing to have closed down over the winter. Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull were in a class of their own last season, but pre-season testing at Barcelona suggests their advantage has been trimmed back by the chasing pack.

While Vasseur thinks that things may well be closer when the season begins in Australia this weekend, he has no doubts that the trio will stretch their legs once they start bringing upgrades.

“It is close because they were fighting in 2018 for the championship and probably they started a little bit later than us,” said Fred Vasseur – “But now they will be full push on the 2019 regulations, and they will develop much faster than the midfield teams and the gap will increase. It was not the case last year [that they pulled away] because at one stage you have a kind of convergence of performance after two or three seasons with the same regulations, but now we are starting from scratch.” – he concluded.