London: Sebastian Vettel admits he is a "bit sad" that there are no longer grid girls in Formula One.

The Ferrari driver got his 2018 campaign off to a flyer with victory at the Australian Grand Prix last month. But there were some noticeable differences on the track at the start in Melbourne.

While the big change this season is the introduction of the 'halo' safety feature on all F1 cars, another difference is that before races there are no longer grid girls.

Owners Liberty Media made the move to drop the practice of having women standing in front of the cars before races after F1 decided it "does not resonate with our brand values and clearly is at odds with modern day societal norms."

Grid girls have now been replaced with grid kids.

Liberty's other major change was delaying race start times by 10 minutes to allow some TV schedulers more time to build up the race instead of a traditional start on the hour mark. And Vettel admits he too is a traditionalist when it comes to these things.

"I think I'm a traditionalist and I like to hold on to certain things," Vettel was quoted as saying by a UK-based newspaper. "There's a lot of things I'm not a specialist in and I don't need to understand.

"I'm confused why the races start later, a bit sad that there are no more grid girls, but other than that, not many changes yet. From a driving point of view, there's obviously not that much that has changed."

The Ferrari driver is looking to beat rival Lewis Hamilton to a fifth world drivers' title to draw level with Argentine legend Juan Manuel Fangio. Vettel will hope to continue his strong start when he takes to the track in Bahrain this weekend. And Hamilton already appears to be backing Ferrari as the favourites to win in Bahrain.

"Their performance is better than it looked," said the reigning world champion. "Ferrari are going to be quick on the straights.

"They are going to be rapid at the next race... They are going to be good in Bahrain. They are always good on hot circuits. Even though it is a night race, it is tough on the tyres."

Earlier, Vettel insisted that Hamilton and he had only fallen out once before and saw no reason why the pair should not get along during an F1 2018 title battle.

While Vettel admitted that their relationship soured at "a point" last year, he claimed the two four-time world champions "don't have a problem with each other."

Referencing the comments made by Hamilton in a press conference, Vettel said: "He said he was joking and I believe him."

The Ferrari driver added: "I think we are old enough and I don't think we need to go on that sort of level.

"It's fine as long as we joke with each other and I think even if we are very different persons, I think we share - all of us - a common passion and that makes us quite equal again.

"We love racing and we try to do our best once we're in the car and beat all the others.

"I think in that regard, I don't see why we shouldn't get on with each other."

Vettel also said that he believes his new Ferrari has "huge potential", but it is not yet giving him the confidence he needs to drive it on the limit.

"I think the car has huge potential, but yeah, I'm still struggling a little bit.

"I think if we also compare to where we are still a bit weak, it's where I feel that the car is not yet there. The car doesn't respond the way I like and it's still sliding in places I don't want it to slide." Agencies