Sebastian Vettel hopes another year “close to perfection” means Mercedes “get a bit bored” in 2020.
Last weekend in Japan, the German manufacturer not only wrapped up the Constructors’ title for the sixth straight year but also made it a two-horse race between Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas for the Drivers’ title.
This after perhaps their most dominant year since 2016, which only saw them lose two of the first 12 races as Ferrari and Red Bull couldn’t keep up.
“It’s very difficult, obviously you can’t see what they are doing but I think from the outside they are very close to perfection every time they go out on track so very consistent, very little mistakes,” Vettel explained.
“That’s certainly also part of what makes them so strong but yeah, if you clinch the Constructors’ title with four races to go there’s a lot of things you do better than all the others.
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“If you go into detail then you can argue what their car is maybe doing better than ours but I don’t think that’s the point overall,” he suggested.
“It’s a team effort and as I said, I think we do have the ingredients, we do have the commitment, we do have the intelligence but we just need to do it better.
“It’s a lot of small things; it’s not one thing that we need to improve, it’s a lot of small things that we need to do better, every single one of us and that’s the only way that we can try and step up.
“Hopefully they get a bit bored, we will see what happens.”
Since the summer break, however, the battle between Mercedes and Ferrari has been much stronger with the Scuderia adding front end grip to match their massive power.
And with that engine advantage now enabling them to score five straight poles and three wins, Hamilton is concerned for 2020.
“We’ve got time for next year,” he said. “I think it’s not been a great year for us in terms of the great issue, in terms of our engine development.
“I think it’s been a really hard time for the guys, they’ve been working as hard as ever but it’s just not been as successful in that department, as I say.
“Plus it [the car] is quite draggy but we’ve had great reliability and hopefully that remains the same and that’s still something to be really proud of course.
“We have, obviously, still won the Constructors’ Championship but we’ll push to try and maybe reduce the drag a little bit but also increase the power for next year and they’re fully onto it,” he added.
“I have all the confidence in the world that we’ll be able to make some sort of step into the next season.”