New Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto says his team must be prepared to play the long game after a disappointing showing in qualifying.
Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc could only manage third and fifth respectively after showing so much promise in pre-season testing. Vettel's time was a whopping seven-tenths of a second down on the pole time of Lewis Hamilton.
After qualifying, Binotto admitted that the team hadn't predicted a gap as big as the one that materialised but added that there was still prizes to be won in the race.
“We can’t say this was the result we were expecting, but we are well aware that Albert Park is not an ideal track for us, as its characteristics do not suit our car that well. Of course, we must improve, but we have gathered a great deal of information to identify the areas on which we must work.
"As usual, Seb showed that he knows how to use every centimetre of the track and Charles got through his first real test, a few little errors notwithstanding. Ahead of us, we have another 20 qualifying sessions and 21 races, so it’s a long game and we’re ready to play it.”