Ferrari would be 'completely wrong' to think they are faster than Mercedes

New Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto believes that it would be "completely wrong" for anyone within the team to think they are automatically going to be faster than Mercedes in the 2019 Formula 1 season just because they were the best performers in testing.

At the Circuit de Catalunya, Sebastian Vettel recorded the fastest time, while Ferrari accumulated an impressive amount of laps.

Lewis Hamilton has previously suggested that Ferrari could be as much as half-a-second faster than Mercedes going into the first Grand Prix of 2019 in Australia, but Binotto thinks it would be foolish for the Scuderia to make that assumption.

"I'm happy to know that Hamilton believes we are faster, but I believe they are very strong," Binotto said of Mercedes.

"I believe that Mercedes will be very, very strong in Australia, and I think it would be completely wrong to think we are faster than them.

"I'm not expecting them to be behind us. I think they will be very, very close."

It wasn't a perfect testing period for Ferrari, however, as they suffered from engine problems regarding electrical and exhaust faults, while Vettel suffered a crash.

Binotto reckons this shows they need to keep working hard to improve.

"I think that we did a lot of work but I'm not pleased with where we are at the moment," added the Italian.

"We would like to be faster and we would like to be more reliable. So there is still much to do.

"I'm pleased to think that the car performs as expected as the starting point, but I know as well there are many issues to be addressed and performance to be pushed forward.

"I will not be pleased today. Certainly the fact that the car is running properly is a good starting point, but that's it.

"Our programme hasn't always ran as we were hoping. I feel that we are are not yet ready for Melbourne - I think most of the tasks are still to be done."

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