Ferrari still a winning team, insists Vettel

Sebastian Vettel has rejected suggestions that Ferrari has 'forgotten' how to win after once again narrowly missing out on victory last weekend in Canada, and insisted that the team still has what it takes win in both races and championships in the future,

"I don't know about other teams, but I disagree when it comes to us," Vettel responded when asked if a team could loose its winning groove.

"Obviously I joined the team last year and it's a very strong team," said the four-time world champion, who took three victories for the Scuderia last year at Malaysia, Hungary and Singapore.

"I think in the end the mentality is responsible for the fact whether you win or not. Ultimately obviously on any day you can choose 100 different reasons - first of all if you are competitive or not, that's one of the main reasons.

"But in terms of mentality I see a team full of winning people. I think there's definitely the desire to win from everyone involved. This is also I think one of the things that makes me very confident that we will start winning, sooner or later.

"Of course the ambition for anyone involved is always to win. Some achieve it and some don't. There's reasons for that, as I said - if you look at the car's performance, etc. which will help you or not, but I think what really makes you a winner is not just the fact if you have a car that's quick enough, it's the people that operate the car ultimately.

"In this regard I think we're a very, very strong team," he insisted. "We can be stronger, so there's stuff that we can learn and will always have to learn, but I haven't seen a winner yet - a winning team or a winning person - that has learned all the lessons in life or everything there is to learn.

"If you look at our sport and the way it's changing and evolving, etc. there's always things you can learn. As a team there's definitely things you can learn; as a driver, how to drive the car. It never stops, but it's the mentality that's mostly responsible for whether you make it or not."

Vettel certainly believes that the team's highly competitive performance in Canada last week shows that they have momentum to build on.

"It was just a clean weekend," said Vettel. "The weekends before were a bit messy in particular in qualifying - we weren't able to show or release the pace of the car.

"In this regard, Saturday was strong and we qualified where the car belongs. On Sunday we had a trouble-free race and were obviously put Lewis under pressure because simply the speed was there. You just have an easier Sunday if Saturday goes well.

"This has to remain the target for here - it's a completely new track but it looks very, very exciting so very much looking forward to it."

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