Sebastian Vettel says there is "a lot of potential" within Ferrari which it needs to exploit to keep the pressure on Mercedes.
The four-time world champion took his third victory of the season in Singapore on Sunday to close the gap to Lewis Hamilton in the drivers' championship to 49 points ahead of this weekend's Japanese Grand Prix. With wet practice throughout Friday, Mercedes was unable to confirm it has fully recovered at Suzuka.
Asked if Ferrari will only get a comparison against Mercedes once it is dry, Vettel replied: "Yep, it’s difficult to say.
"It was a surprise to see Mercedes so far down [in Singapore], this has been said often enough. If it keeps being a surprise we don’t mind, but we have to keep our feet on the ground. We know there is a lot for us to do – a lot of potential amongst ourselves, so we have to focus on us and we see where the others are."
And Vettel says he is not realistically thinking about the championship at this stage, sitting nearly two race wins behind Hamilton.
"It’s better to be closer than further away, but it’s still a massive gap. 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."
REPORT: Kvyat edges Rosberg in wet FP2 at Suzuka
AS IT HAPPENED: Japanese Grand Prix FP2
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