Sebastian Vettel has called on his Ferrari team to improve and take the “final step” towards producing a lasting championship bid in 2019.
Much like 2017, the four-time world champion led a strong challenge against Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes for the first half of this past season only for errors and late issues with development to hand the Briton the title.
While Vettel himself came under fire for a series of mistakes, including first lap contact on three occasions and his infamous crash while leading at Hockenheim to name a few, he insists the Scuderia still lacked that final bit of performance.
“I think we need a stronger package,” he claimed. “We certainly had our moments this year when we had strong races but we also had races which weren’t very strong, we weren’t quick enough, so I think overall it’s the speed that decides and I think more often than not I think we’re lacking a little bit of speed.
“I think we’re working very hard and the motivation is there to do that final step that is still outstanding.”
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While much of the attention was on the 31-year-old, he also pointed to those within Maranello and the difference they too can make.
“What you look at in terms of when you look in qualifying or the race, then obviously we are the ones driving the car and we are alone driving the car,” he noted.
“When we cross the line you look at us first, but there’s a lot of people behind to make sure that you do cross the line and if they do their job really really well and work together then you have a high chance of finishing higher up.”
And looking forward to 2019, Vettel continued: “We know where we want to go: A lot of work ahead of us, a lot of lessons to be learned again this year.
“We had 21 races and in summary, we haven’t been strong enough this year to take the challenge until the last race, the last lap, so I think we need to look at ourselves.
“I think we have the people, we have the resources so it’s more getting the maximum out of our package, improving the work inside our team and making sure that we come up with a stronger package, a stronger team for the future.”
For next year Vettel also faces a threat from new teammate Charles Leclerc and a Red Bull team looking to finally make their own step forward with new engine supplier Honda.