Vettel unfazed by the heat

Vettel insists he is not worried about the pressure that comes with being one of the favourites to win the Formula One.

The list of favourites is a pretty long one this year. Besides Vettel, Mark Webber, Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button, Fernando Alonso, Felipe Massa, Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg have all been tipped as possible title winners in 2010.

Red Bull driver Vettel, who finished nine points behind world champion Button last year, admits there will be pressure on him this year, but he's not bothered about it.

"It is true that the expectations are higher from the outside," he told Germany's Salzburger Nachrichten. "It's something I can also be proud of. Our position as one of the favourites this year is down to our achievements of 2009.

"However, there is no time to rest. You must once again prove yourself in each test, in each round. To become world champion was my goal last year and that will again be the case this year. Whether the pressure comes from the outside, I don't really care."

The new season is just a few weeks away and it's already clear from testing sessions that the four front runners are set to dominate. Vettel, though, insists "there's still more to come" as teams will make further improvements.

"Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes and ourselves are at the front," he said. "But everything will be probably be very close. Ferrari have looked pretty strong so far. However, all teams will make improvements to their car before the start of the season, so there's is more to come."

The best car I've ever had

Fernando Alonso has hailed this year's Ferrari F10 as the "the best car I've ever had".

The Spaniard, who left Renault in favour of Ferrari in the off-season in the hope of adding to his two World titles, spent the past two days putting the team's new F10 through its paces at Jerez.

And although Alonso wasn't the quickest of the bunch on either day, he put in some impressive times during his long-distance runs as Ferrari focused on race simulations.

"There are no reasons to be pessimistic," the double World Champion told the Spanish media. "As of today, this is the best car I've ever had.

"The two days that I tested it was sunny and the track was dry and I could work more than I thought so I'm very happy. We have done a good job in terms of reliability and long runs."

The Spaniard also hinted that Ferrari have yet to show their true pace on low fuel loads, something he reckons both Red Bull and McLaren have already done.

While Red Bull's Mark Webber set the fastest time on Friday, McLaren's Jenson Button blitzed that on Saturday when he clocked a 1:18.871, the fastest time seen at Jerez this year.

However, Alonso isn't worried. Instead, he reckons it's Ferrari's rivals who should watch out.

"Red Bull, McLaren and Renault have been very quick and they have shown their cards, while we are still hiding ours," he said.

"We are going to analyse the data, but we are very optimistic. As of today, if I were in a different team I would be looking at Ferrari because everything is going very well.

"Maybe where Ferrari needs to improve is in the short runs with little fuel onboard. That's where the Red Bull and the McLaren have been quicker, and they will be the reference to try and improve the F10 in the next test in Barcelona."