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Sebastian Vettel declared Ferrari's return to form in 2015 as "a miracle" at the end of his first season with the team in Formula 1.

The four-time world champion won three races for the Maranello-based team this year, making him the only driver other than Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg to taste victory during the F1 season.

Vettel believes that Ferrari's turnaround from a winless 2014 campaign, and its progress against Mercedes over the course of this year, were both phenomenal achievements.

"If we look at how were at testing compared to now, it is a miracle," said Vettel.

"It is a miracle where we started off in the winter, setting fastest times.

"Going into Australia we were obviously way behind [Mercedes] and I haven't seen any other team making that much progress in a season so we are closer.

"We are not close enough yet but we can really fight them and put them under pressure.

"We had a lot of smiles this year so if we can increase the number of smiles then it is good news.

"Now I look forward to saying 'cheers' for the great season that we've had and enjoying that moment."

Vettel recovered from his Q1 elimination in Abu Dhabi Grand Prix qualifying on Saturday to take fourth behind team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, and he said that was the best result Ferrari could hope for in the finale.

"Yesterday we did a mistake and we made it right in the race, but in the end Kimi had a clean race for P3," he said.

"The best result one way or another would be P3 and P4 so we can be very happy with today.

"You always want to be closer to the guy in front but we've had a lot of races where we have finished third and fourth behind Mercedes.

"I don't have any regrets. Considering where we started [15th], it was the best we could do."