A yawning 34 seconds might have separated third-placed Sebastian Vettel from Australian Grand Prix winner Lewis Hamilton yesterday but the podium spot felt like a victory for the four-times world champion on his Ferrari debut.

German Vettel endured a horror final season with Red Bull last year, outshone by new team-mate Daniel Ricciardo and plagued by reliability problems throughout a winless campaign.

Jumping ship to a shaken-up Ferrari was a leap of faith for Vettel after the Maranello team laboured to fourth in the championship, their first winless season in over 20 years.

Though buoyed by a positive winter testing, Vettel was apprehensive about what to expect on the first race weekend but was relieved when his car behaved during qualifying at Albert Park on Saturday.

Starting fourth on the grid, Vettel survived a chaotic start that saw him nearly hit team-mate Kimi Raikkonen and after holding off Williams driver Felipe Massa for a well-earned podium spot, spoke of truly ‘living the dream’.

“It’s really an honour to sit in the red car. Certainly when the chequered flag came out it was a great feeling,” the 27-year-old told reporters.

“Of course, it’s not a victory, but for us it feels like a victory. It’s a great relief after a horrible season last year.”

Vettel was under no illusion about Ferrari’s distance from Mercedes.

“Well, you have to be realistic,” he said.

“It will be difficult to beat Mercedes. Thirty four seconds down the road is a lot for everyone else.”