Vettel: Ferrari need 'last step' to be in title contention next season

Ferrari's number one driver, Sebastian Vettel, has said that the Italian team needs to take the 'last step' if they are to win the world championship next year. 

Ferrari started the 2018 campaign competitively but rapidly failed to perform after the summer break. Lewis Hamilton secured the championship with two races to go, emphasising the lack of competition in the second half of the season. 

When speaking to autosport.com at the FIA Gala in Russia Vettel talked about what he needed from his car next year: 

"Better performance. I think it is very simple.

"We had our races where we were very close and very competitive, and overall our car this year has been more an all-around car which worked on all tracks."

The German racer went on to say, "we had too many races where we were not quite there. Sometimes [it was] by a tenth or two but sometimes a bit more, where we were left with not much to do over a weekend. And that is something we must fix and try to control better going into next year."

Reflecting on last season and looking to the next, Vettel said, "the last step is missing to make sure that we have a word until the end of the championship and fight for it all the way, and not just for parts of the season."