Sebastian Vettel is convinced Ferrari had a better package than Red Bull in 2016 and should have beaten the Milton Keynes team to second in the championship.
Ferrari came into the season with high hopes of a championship challenge and looked set to live up to those expectations in the early stages of the Australian Grand Prix. However, after bungling its strategy in Melbourne, and again in Canada later in the year, Ferrari dropped off the pace and was soon in a battle with Red Bull rather than Mercedes.
Red Bull eventually finished a massive 70 points ahead of Ferrari, who failed to win a race for the second season in three years. Vettel does not think that is a fair reflection, something he blames on the team not maximising its results in the early part of the year.
Up and down not as good as expected," Vettel said. "Overall it has been a bit up and down season I think it could have been a lot better points-wise I think we didn't manage to score enough points at the beginning of the year.
"Towards the end we have found ourselves in a very tight battle with Red Bull but I think overall we have had the stronger package and should have finished second in the constructors' championship. Especially at the beginning we dropped too many points.
"The big disappointment is that we didn't manage to fight with Mercedes but nevertheless there have been a lot of things happen in the background which should make the team stronger for the next years."
After Melbourne, Vettel did not start the Bahrain Grand Prix after his engine failed on the formation lap. He was then punted out of the Russian Grand Prix on the opening lap by Daniil Kvyat. At the next race a strategy call took Vettel and Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo out of contention, while Max Verstappen held off Kimi Raikkonen in the other Ferrari for his maiden win.