Wolff says all Ferrari are missing is reliability after one-two in P2; Maurizio Arrivabene claims Mercedes are "best team in 10 years"
Saturday 16 April 2016 16:24, UK
Toto Wolff has warned Ferrari's "raw performance" is pushing Mercedes after Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel secured an impressive one-two in Practice Two.
Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton dominated the first practice session at the Chinese GP and looked to be doing so again later on Friday, before the Scuderia showed their pace on the supersoft compound.
Raikkonen clocked a 1:36.896, just over a tenth faster than his team-mate, which was quicker than any time set in all three practice sessions last season.
While Ferrari have struggled with the reliability of the SF16-H during the early part of 2016 their race pace looks strong, all-but matching Mercedes in Australia and Bahrain on the longer stints.
Still, Maurizio Arrivabene was keeping his feet on the ground, stating they are battling the greatest team of the last decade in the Silver Arrows.
"We had a good Friday, not a bad one," the Ferrari team principal said. "Unfortunately you're not gaining position on the grid or points in the championship. It's a good start but the weekend is still long.
"I can say that the Mercedes team of this year is the strongest one we have seen in the last 10 years. To be able to win against them you have to work and to be better than them. Even so, we are doing our best to have a good result."
Mercedes chief Wolff, sitting next to the Italian in the team principals' press conference, laughed at the notion.
"Before answering the question I'd like to give the flowers back," he said. "They are pushing us very hard. You have seen today, it's raw performance."
Mercedes' Paddy Lowe echoed Wolff's warning and is expecting a tight battle: "We're very close with Ferrari on both single lap and long run pace across all three tyre compounds, so we look set for an exciting weekend."
Raikkonen: Ferrari speed is there
Ferrari have already fallen 50 points behind reigning champions Mercedes in the constructors' standings after losing one car to reliability in each of the first two races.
Raikkonen dropped out at the Australian GP after a turbo failure caused an airbox fire, while Vettel did not even take the start in Bahrain after his car started trailing smoke on the formation lap.
But Wolff believes these failures simply come as a result of their giant stride forward in terms of competing with his team.
"We have seen that raw performance in the last couple of races," the Austrian added. "They haven't been able to pull it all together because they made another big step from 2015 to 2016, similar to the step of 2014 to 2015, in order to have the package to deliver and be reliable. That is obviously not an easy task.
"Down to sheer performance they are really pushing us. That is good, that is what competition is about."
Nico Rosberg, the quickest Mercedes driver on Friday, agreed the red threat was rising: "It looks like we are quick here again - but in the afternoon we saw that Ferrari are also very quick, so we are definitely looking out for them and we'll have a bit homework to do tonight."
Despite trailing his team-mate in both sessions, Hamilton wasn't too despondent and is predicting tyre wear to create a dramatic race on Sunday.
"It's not been a bad day. I didn't feel too comfortable with the car this morning but the team made some changes over lunch and it was much better in the second session," he said.
"The weather has been surprisingly warm but with a lot of wind, which made it quite difficult out there through the high-speed corners. We're seeing already that tyre degradation will be a big factor this weekend, which is pretty normal for this circuit but definitely something to watch out for on Sunday."
As well as giving us an indication of their fine one-lap speed, Ferrari also seemed to be close to Mercedes when it came to longer race stints in practice.
Raikkonen, however, said he wasn't comfortable on any tyre apart from the supersofts.
The Finn said: "It felt very slippery. With the supersoft it improved a bit, but nowhere near ideal.
"I only used the medium in the morning and it didn't feel very good. But the softs didn't feel very good. The supersoft was the best, but it is too early to say."
Watch the Chinese GP weekend - LIVE ONLY on Sky Sports F1. The race starts at 7am on Sunday, with build-up underway from 5.30am. Or watch without a contract for £6.99 on NOW TV.
