Sebastian Vettel has insisted that he and Ferrari can still hunt down Formula 1 title rivals Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes, in spite of their respective recent form.
Vettel led the standings after the British Grand Prix but Hamilton has won four of the last five races – his run interrupted by Vettel’s Belgian triumph – to open a 40-point title advantage.
That spell included several errors and setbacks on the red side, the most high-profile being Vettel’s exit from the lead in Germany and first-lap spin on Ferrari’s home ground in Italy.
Only six races remain in the 2018 campaign but Vettel stressed that he still has the capability to overturn Hamilton’s advantage.
“I think it’s very simple from where we are, we are some points behind and we need to catch up to make sure we stay there [in the fight],” said Vettel.
“That’s our target and the best way to do that is finish ahead, and ideally above everybody, that’s what we generally try to do so the plan doesn’t really change.
“Obviously at this point we try to give everything we have and I still believe we have a chance.
“We had races in the past we should have won but didn’t, and we had others we won we shouldn’t have, anything is possible.
“I’m not aiming to win all six races, first of all, I’m aiming to win here, then once that’s done we go to the next one, and the next one, not much point looking five or six races ahead.
“It’s much better off staying in the moment and focusing on what lies in front of you and right now that’s FP1.”
Vettel took pole position for last year’s Russian Grand Prix – when it was held as the fourth round of the season – but stressed that past results should not allow Ferrari to rest on its laurels.
“I think last year was a surprise to see we were so competitive here but this year we sort of expect to be competitive here,” he said.
“But having said that I think we need to take into account the last couple of races where we struggled to have maybe the race pace and put it together in the race for different reasons.
“I think we need to not get distracted by the results but focus on the job we do and tackle each session on its own and see where we end up.”
Vettel added that motivation within Ferrari remains high, commenting that “some races didn’t go the way we wanted to, the way I wanted to.
“All the guys… it’s late in the year, everybody has had a tough season, [but] everybody is really motivated and saying nice things and meaning it to me.
“This really helped me to overcome these sorts of races, the energy I got from the outside, from fans and supporters in Singapore before the race after the race, also here, little messages here and there.
“It’s really nice to receive positive news maybe in times where what you expect is probably negative.”
