[3] The car made its competitive début at the 2017 Australian Grand Prix, where it finished first and fourth in the hands of Vettel and Räikkönen, respectively.

The car proved to be fast in pre-season testing, and it carried its form into the first race of the season, the Australian Grand Prix.

This result also marked the first race weekend after which a Mercedes-powered team was not leading the Constructors' Championship since the 2013 Brazilian Grand Prix.

At the end of lap 2, many drivers including Vettel decided to pit for dry tyres under the Virtual Safety Car caused by Williams' Lance Stroll who had crashed.

This proved to be very costly for Vettel as Sauber's Antonio Giovinazzi crashed on lap 4 which forced the Safety Car to come out.

At the start, Vettel passed Hamilton for second and was pushing Bottas who struggled with pace and rear tyres.

He easily passed Bottas but Vettel maintained the lead to win the Bahrain Grand Prix for the third time, with Räikkönen finishing fourth.

Ferrari would earn their first front-row lockout of the season in Russia with Vettel taking pole position.

After the race, talks arose that Ferrari had deliberately put Räikkönen on the slower strategy (Pirelli had said that ultrasofts could last an entire race distance,[5] so the preferred strategy was to run on ultrasofts as long as possible) so that Vettel could maximize the points gain from Hamilton's lowly finish.

Vettel made a comeback drive and managed to overtake the two Force Indias of Sergio Pérez and Esteban Ocon, who were engaged in an inter-team battle which possibly cost them a chance for a podium finish, and finished in fourth; Räikkonen meanwhile was running in sixth but had a brake issue which forced him to limp home in seventh.

At the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Räikkönen managed to out-qualify Vettel as they lined up on the second row of the grid behind the two Mercedes.

He finished in fourth, ahead of Hamilton who had to make a mandatory pit stop to change his loose headrest.

Three penalty points were added to Vettel's licence and he later admitted his mistake and apologised to Hamilton and the FIA which saw him avoid a possible race ban.

He retired on lap 46 as a precaution to prevent the failure of his suspension which had received damage from the crash with Bottas.

At the British Grand Prix, Ferrari seemed to struggle to keep up with the Mercedes as Hamilton was half a second quicker than Räikkönen in qualifying who lined up in 2nd ahead of Vettel in 3rd.

During the start of the race, Vettel dropped behind Verstappen and was relegated to 4th but he regained his position by undercutting the Red Bull in the pits.

After an appalling weekend in Silverstone, Ferrari looked to be struggling during Friday practice in Hungary; however both cars looked dominant on Saturday with Vettel scoring pole position from Räikkönen and being half a second quicker than Bottas and seven-tenths faster than Hamilton despite Mercedes holding a 0.5–0.7 seconds advantage over Ferrari in qualifying trim.

On Sunday morning, Vettel's car developed a hydraulic problem which had to be rectified quickly before the race began.

As the race began, it was apparent that Ferrari had the quickest car on circuit, although Vettel's pace started dropping after the initial stint.

The Finn had been given a 10-second stop-go penalty for ignoring yellow flags when the luckless Max Verstappen retired.

Vettel managed damage limitation by grabbing the final podium spot, giving the tifosi a reason to cheer.

Ferrari managed to edge out the competition from Red Bull in qualifying at the Singapore Grand Prix.

In Q1 there were still major problems on Vettel's PU which couldn't be solved in time, making the German start from last on the grid.

[12] Ferrari's woes continued on Sunday, as Raikkonen didn't even take the start after being pushed off his front-row slot and into the pits after experiencing power loss on his way to the grid.

Vettel stormed back through the field and narrowly missed out on the podium, unable to pass Ricciardo for third.

After losing control in the Degner's curve in FP3, Räikkönen damaged his gearbox, earning him a five-place grid penalty.

Räikkönen went wide on the first lap in a fight for position with Hülkenberg and only managed to salvage fifth place for the team.

The team elected to change Vettel's chassis after the German experienced problems in Friday's second practice session in Austin which limited his running to only 11 laps.

As Verstappen received a five-second post-race penalty for exceeding track limits and gaining an advantage, it brought Vettel back to fourth place and allowed Ferrari their first double-podium finish since Hungary.

[19] One week later at the Mexican Grand Prix, Vettel was facing a 66-point deficit to Hamilton in the Drivers' Championship.