As his first season with Ferrari draws to a close, Sebastian Vettel has marked Ferrari "between seven and nine out of ten".
Vettel joined Ferrari from Red Bull last winter and won on just his second outing with the team in Malaysia. He has already secured third in the championship after scoring three victories over the last 18 races, but says he will reserve full marks for his new team when it starts winning championships.
"I'd only give ourselves a ten if we would have won the championship, but considering the difficulties we had at the start of the season I'd mark this season between a seven and a nine," Vettel said. "I think it's pretty clear things have changed inside Ferrari compared to the year before. People are much more fired up and there were big changes over the last winter with new talent on board and people shifting positions. Big changes are not easy to digest for a big team but I think we managed things pretty well throughout the season to improve the car, the engine, the power unit and we can be pretty happy."
Vettel says Mercedes remains the team to beat and Ferrari will have to make bigger steps over the coming winter to beat its rival.
"I think in the end it's very simple: we've made big steps this year, we've got closer to Mercedes but not near enough to say we're within reach. We're still not the favourites and our target is to change that, we need to improve the car and the power unit, because we're still a bit down in both areas. The reason why Mercedes had another great year is not just the power unit or just because of the car, it's a combination of things. They have a great car and they were able to improve their car significantly from last year and there's no point in talking about the engine because we know how strong it is.
"We expect them to keep on going, so everyone who wants to challenge and beat them has to do bigger steps. That's our target, to try and come out with a stronger car and a stronger power unit. A strong Power Unit it's not just more power, it's other things too. I don't happens behind other people's closed doors but I know what's happening in Maranello and it's very promising. But we have to put the car on the track to see where we are."