Sebastian Vettel described his debut in a Ferrari F1 car as “really, really special” and said that it was like a fairy tale.

Vettel spent the past few days at Ferrari getting to know the team and engineers and also got to meet with the top brass at Ferrari and Fiat.

On Saturday, Vettel drove the F2012 around the Fiorano test track at Ferrari’s factory in Maranello emblazoned with his chosen #5 on the car. Incidentally, this was the same number Fernando Alonso drove with in 2012 when he lost the world championship to Vettel at the final race in Brazil. He spent Sunday in the simulator and met the senior team members which included recently appointed Ferrari Team Principal, Maurizio Arrivabene, and Technical Director James Allison. Ferrari and Fiat Chairman Sergio Marchionne was also there to meet the young German.

Vettel was quite emotional talking about is first time in a Ferrari.

“There are a lot of fairy tales about Ferrari and how it feels to drive a red car,” said Vettel

“In the end I can only confirm these fairy tales. It’s not just a story; it’s a true legend that exists.

“And it feels really, really special to become part of that and to be inside the car, to see the people coming, running to the track and trying to climb the walls to see the car.

The Ferrari engineers were very impressed with Vettel’s attention to detail. He apparently spent the whole day of Sunday from 10am till 6pm in the simulator breaking only for lunch.

Vettel will get a chance to drive the 2015 car at the Jerez test next year, but this gave him an opportunity to get his seating position and his seat fitted properly, get a sense of how the team works and to get acquainted with the different steering controls on the Ferrari.