Sebastian Vettel has admitted that Ferrari had a significant drop-off in performance in the second half of the season.
The Scuderia had the lead in both Championships at the halfway point, but were unable to take the fight to the season finale in either title race.
Looking back at the season, the four-time World Champion said that he was happy to be fighting for the title in the first place.
“I think first of all it’s a nice position to be in to be able to fight for the championship,” Vettel admitted.
“Obviously the years after my last championship haven’t been straightforward.
“I think it’s nice in the last two years to be back in a position we can fight for wins and also have a word to say for the championship.
“But I think if you look at the whole championship then we were still too far away.”
The German admitted, though, that Ferrari suffered a drop-off, and with Mercedes becoming the better team, the title was lost.
“It was looking quite good and close up to halfway through, and maybe the races including Spa and Monza,” he added.
“After that I think we had a quite significant drop in performance which obviously made it quite difficult for us.
“Equally, Lewis together with Mercedes had a very strong sequence of races, scoring a lot of points, a lot of wins.
“Then the gap opened up quite quickly from that point onwards.”
The German tried to hold on to the very end in the Drivers’ title race, but eventually lost out to Lewis Hamilton in Mexico.
“I think you always tend to believe and fight until the end,” the German continued.
“So it was really Mexico when I realised it would be difficult, and then impossible once we crossed the line.
“But until then I didn’t really follow the points that closely. I obviously knew that it wasn’t going in my favour.”
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