Sebastian Vettel is confident his Ferrari team will maintain the form they showed last season and make further progress after coming up short in their championship bid.
The Italian team was the revelation of last year, using the new rules to become regular contenders to Mercedes and resulting in the first head to head between Lewis Hamilton and the four-time world champion for the title.
However, small but decisive errors by Vettel and reliability problems at just the wrong time saw the imperious Brackley-based team canter to a fourth successive double championship success.
"The step that we have done in 2017 was incredible. The way the team has come out with a competitive car at the beginning, the way we have improved on all fronts I think it has been outstanding," the German claimed.
"We have been close for most of the year but not close enough when it mattered, but that's what happened. From that, we made our conclusions, we learned our lessons and I believe that those will help us next year. We are completely fired up."
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With Mercedes already sending messages of further progress with the engine and chassis and the likes of Red Bull and even McLaren entering the fight, Vettel knows Ferrari face a tough task this season.
"Everybody will be pushing very hard over the winter but I think we have what we need," he said. "It all starts again in 2018, so let's see. I think we know what we need to do.
"There are lessons that were obvious, some were a bit more hidden but I'm sure we'll dig deep enough and try to find all of them."
