Sebastian Vettel is not ready to start targeting the 2015 drivers' championship and instead says Ferrari will have to be patient for title success.
Vettel's victory at the Singapore Grand Prix means he is 49 points shy of championship leader Lewis Hamilton in the standings with six races remaining. However, the paddock is expecting Mercedes to return to the front of the field this weekend in Japan and Vettel admits his chances of challenging for the title are very slim.
"It's better to be closer than further away, but it's still a massive gap," he said. "There's a lot of races still to come, but every Sunday is a new opportunity. It's wrong in this moment to talk about the championship for us.
"We know we have a lot of work to do, we know we have to improve, but we also know that some things don't happen from now to tomorrow so we have to be patient. We will try everything we can to give our best and then we see where we are with a couple of races to go."
But Vettel promised to give the next six races his all.
"Maybe one promise we can give is to ourselves and to all the tifosi that are supporting us is that we will try everything we can. Every Sunday there is a new chance and we have to make sure we put ourselves in the best position, Friday, Saturday, for the race, and then we see what we can do.
"Clearly we are not the favourites if you look at the championship, not the favourites if you look into this race or this weekend, so we also have to keep our feet on the ground."