Former Ferrari technical chief and now motorsport director at the Formula One Group, Ross Brawn believes the Scuderia should remain "pleased" by the progress they have made in 2017 despite the problems of recent races.

It appeared as though the Italian team, thanks to Sebastian Vettel, would be able to maintain a year-long challenge to Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes after using this year's rule changes to emerge as a major threat to the recent domination of the German manufacturer. 

However, since the flyaways, their momentum has faltered with two retirements for Vettel in Singapore and Japan as well as engine problems blighting the last two races, giving the British driver a 59-point advantage with four races to go. 

"Having experienced reliability woes of this kind at first hand with various teams, I know how painful it can be to see the hard work of so many people undone in a moment," Brawn commented.

"I have some sympathy for Ferrari at this difficult time. The team comes under incredible pressure, especially at home, and it's easy for heads to drop but the key is to stay calm and focus on immediate goals."

Indeed, with the next big goal for the Maranello outfit to be to maintain their recent renaissance into 2018 and beyond, the Briton claims Ferrari should take heart from their performance this season as they look to end a decade-long wait for a title.

"However the season ends, Ferrari should be pleased with what it's achieved in 2017," Ross said. "For the first time in the hybrid era, Mercedes has come up against a rival capable of fighting for the title.

"It's been a long time since Ferrari have been as competitive and the problems of recent weeks haven't erased that fact."

That has also been the view of Vettel as, publicly at least, he has remained behind his team and backed them to continue moving forward.

More recently, he also played down the often outspoken words of the company President Sergio Marchionne, believing the reaction to them is overexaggerated.

"So I think whatever he says, he is usually very straightforward and he is right. There is always a reason for it, he is fair, but then people tend to make a little bit too much noise about it," the four-time champion said in an interview with Autosport.

"Whatever he says in the press, he is saying the same things inside the team and even more straightforward. So for people inside the team it's not a big news but for outside it always seems to be a big news, and then this can create a bit of unnecessary turbulences I would say."