Sebastian Vettel believes his rivals are "very close to perfection" after Mercedes picked up their sixth consecutive double world championship win last weekend. The German managed to beat both Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas to grab pole position, but a mistake on the start line allowed both Silver Arrows to sail past in Japan.
Following Formula 1's summer break, Ferrari had a surge in good results, but it hasn't been able to derail the Mercedes dominance. However, without any regulation changes during the winter break, Ferrari can keep their focus on their current car and chase down the near perfection.
"It's very difficult, obviously you can't see what they are doing but I think from the outside they are very close to perfection every time they go out on track so very consistent, very little mistakes," Vettel said during the press conference.
"That's certainly also part of what makes them so strong but yeah, if you clinch the Constructors title with four races to go there's a lot of things you do better than all the others. If you go into detail then you can argue what their car is maybe doing better than ours but I don't think that's the point overall, it's a team effort and as I said."