Sebastian Vettel says the Ferrari’s recent lack of success, either through incidents, reliability setbacks, or failure to extract full performance, is all of its own doing.
Vettel led the Formula 1 title race through to Italy but has tumbled out of contention in recent events, and is now 66 points behind Lewis Hamilton, with only 75 points still up for grabs.
Vettel held aspirations of fighting Hamilton for victory at the United States Grand Prix and took the lead at the start, only to fall behind his rival after a handful of laps.
“We are on the right track, but all the things that happened to us came out not because of bad luck or because of somebody else,” he said, all but accepting defeat in the title race.
“I think it was all on our side and we need to admit that.
“Then there were races in which we were stronger and we just didn't race, which is even worse.”
Vettel was also at a loss to explain why he was not able to preserve his tyres as strongly as Hamilton, with Ferrari unable to make its usual step between qualifying and the race.
“I don’t know the complete answer,” he said.
“I think, for my part, I wasn't expecting to struggle that much, especially in the first stint. I think towards the end it was a bit more normal – but obviously by then the race was lost.
“I think coming here, looking at the track, it was probably more Mercedes ground but the last couple of races gave us a lot of hope and confidence and I think we’ve been OK.
“We were fairly close [in qualifying], closer than we expected. And unfortunately, [in the race] we were not gaining compared to normal where on Sunday we seem to be a bit closer.”
