But the German says he wants to wait for the Monza weekend to play it before making a definitive judgement.

The Ferrari was clearly the second fastest car at its home track today: Vettel was third quickest in FP2, some 0.453s off the Mercedes of pace-setter Lewis Hamilton, and a similar margin clear of the quickest Red Bull of Max Verstappen.

"It's a new engine," he said of the upgrade. "It's doing what it's supposed to do, so it's positive.

"Obviously on Friday you try lots of different things. We need to wait a little bit more, tomorrow, Sunday, and then see where we are.

"It's Friday, so it's not the most important part of the weekend, but it's important that we ran. I think we have a decent speed.

"I think we need to improve from where we are, I think we can tickle more out of the car. The car feels good, we just need to make it feel good in every corner, and bring it together. Other than that, the first impression is positive."

Vettel conceded that Mercedes will be hard to beat.

"We've had worse Fridays, but I think Mercedes is looking very strong, similar to last year. They seem to be very competitive around here, so in that regard, nothing has changed.

"I think tomorrow we can have a good day, we need to improve the car, focus on ourselves, and then we can be a lot closer."