Ferrari once again proved themselves 'the best of the rest' in Brazil and even narrowed the gap to Mercedes - but Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene is still looking for much bigger improvements to come.
"Good is when you win, today it’s okay," he said, setting the team an unequivocal target for what he wants to see in 2016. "If you want my honest expectation, it is not to be closer to them but to be in front of them!
"I tell you that with humility, but we are closer even now so we must be in front next year.
"The pace of the car was not so bad. In certain laps, we were near by them; other laps, same time and, in just a few laps, even better but, unfortunately, most of the laps, we were a bit far from them so they constructed an advantage.
With Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen finishing in close-fought third and fourth places respectively behind the two Mercedes drivers, Arrivabene did take heart from his observation that Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton hadn't been able to simply coast their way to victory this weekend at Interlagos, which in his mind proved that Ferrari was closing the gap.
"They were pushing and, at certain points, they were pushing very hard so I am sure that today was one of the days when, apart from the last three or four laps, they were pushing all the time. Maybe on other occasions, no, but today I am quite sure. Only Mercedes know, but from our data I think that they were pushing.
"Today is not an exception if you look at the numbers," he pointed out. "It is absolutely like this. Without a pace car and everything, it was somehow a race where we were closer to them than any other. We finished the race only [seven seconds slower] than them, completing all the laps.
"Looking at the data, we are there because our engine department have done a great job and I want to take this occasion to thank them because, for us, the engine is the core of the car," he added.
"I know we have other parts of the car where we have to work but this year it was not possible to make some huge changes. But we look forward for next year.
"We are looking to improve the car in every single part. The engine was a big improvement for this year, and next year we are working very hard on all the other parts of the car."
REPORT: Rosberg keeps Hamilton at bay to win in Brazil
AS IT HAPPENED: Brazilian Grand Prix
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