Vettel ready to live the dream with Ferrari debut

This time next week Sebastian Vettel will be carrying out official duties in Melbourne and preparing to practice, qualify and race for the first ti...

This time next week Sebastian Vettel will be carrying out official duties in Melbourne and preparing to practice, qualify and race for the first time as a Ferrari driver. He has described it as a 'dream'.

In an interview today in Gazzetta dello Sport, Vettel speaks about the secret negotiations that took him to Maranello, reveals his knowledge about Ferrari's history, something many Ferrari drivers sense but never bother to read up about and talks about where he thinks Ferrari is in the pecking order going into the season.

Vettel explained that his first professional contact with Ferrari came with Stefano Domenicali, the former team principal, in 2008 when he was at Toro Rosso. They had an open conversation about a possible future in Ferrari.

A more serious dialogue began in 2010, but Vettel insists that nothing was signed. In the winter of 2012 he met with former chairman Luca di Montezemolo secretly in Maranello and a more serious plan emerged. It was around this time that stories emerged from Italy, reported on this site at the time, that Vettel had some kind of understanding with Ferrari.

Last year Marco Mattiacci took the dialogue further. It is emerging now, although not from this account of Vettel's, that Mattiacci set himself against Alonso from fairly early on and decided during the season to move on without him. With a mature dialogue in place at the highest levels with Vettel, it was natural that he was the one they turned to.

The final stages were handled with Sabine Kehm, Michael Schumacher's manager as an intermediary, as the subject was so sensitive.

The escape clause in Vettel's Red Bull contract, triggered by the lack of results for the team in the run up to the end of September, made the switch even easier.

Vettel speaks of his admiration for Enzo Ferrari, "Because he had a vision and he realised it. I think he was a hard man, formidable at building a company and then creating a passion around it and the racing. He's a different constructor from the rest. Enzo Ferrari in Italy is culture."

Vettel has arrived at Maranello at a time of change with many new faces in engineering and a new team principal, Maurizio Arrivabene. The team is very much improved on a technical level with a superior power unit that is still not at Mercedes' level but has clearly moved ahead of Renault and is both powerful enough and driveable enough to make Ferrari protagonists again, if not challenging for the wins to start with. Arrivabene has set a target of two wins in the season.

The chassis is much more positive and driveable, the steering is sharp and the car goes where the drivers point it, while the straight line speeds have been strong all through testing, indicating plenty of power and full use of the Energy Recovery System, which wasn't possible last season.

"The favourites are Hamilton and Rosberg," says Vettel."I would say it's 50-50 between them. Last year I didn't expect Nico to be so strong, especially in qualifying. In races he stayed with Hamilton almost every time. They are the ones to beat.

"It's hard to say exactly where we are and how strong we are. We have to be patient. But the car above all is really good. Kimi and I are happy. Ferrari is a team with a lot of people who went away and have come back again. It takes time to gel, but sooner or later we'll get there."