Sebastian Vettel says he isn’t prepared to give up on his championship chances despite Ferrari not having won any of the nine races so far this year.

The Ferrari driver fell to fourth in the championship, 74 points behind leader Lewis Hamilton , at the Austrian Grand Prix. However he says Ferrari has made progress with its car in recent races and the coming rounds will be “crucial” for the championship.

“I don’t think I have a reason not to believe,” said Vettel when asked if he thinks the championship is still possible, “but it’s not my number one thought when I go to bed.

“I am looking forward to this race and then looking forward to the next. I think we have a lot of stuff on our list, a lot of work ahead of us and time will tell.

“Obviously the next races until the summer break in general are very crucial. But in order to turn things around we need to have a stronger package overall otherwise it’s not enough to just challenge for victory. I think we need to have a package strong enough to demand the victory.”

Ferrari has understood why the floor part of its French Grand Prix upgrade did not work as expected, Vettel added.

“We learned a lot after [the] confusion or some bits that didn’t turn out the way we wanted to during the French Grand Prix. I think Austria brought some clarity and I think we have a clear picture of what was wrong in terms of tuning and what needs to be changed.

“Obviously the next couple of weeks then will tell where we go. I think it’s pretty normal that unfortunately not all the bits that you bring always bring you the step that you want or you expect. Sometimes parts over-deliver, which is great, and sometimes they under-deliver. I think overall we just need to make sure that we know a direction to go to and we keep going down that way.”

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2019 F1 season