Hamilton and Mercedes have had it easy - Vettel

Sebastian Vettel says Ferrari have made the title fight "too easy" for Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes in recent races. Hamilton has won six of the last seven grands prix and could be crowned world champion for fifth time in Austin next time out.

Hamilton's victories in Germany, Hungary, Italy and Singapore have come assisted with an error from either Vettel or Ferrari, while the German lost points in a crash with Max Verstappen while his title rival comfortably won the Japanese Grand Prix last weekend.

Vettel concedes that the Silver Arrows have done a better job since the European summer, but says he and Ferrari have not hit their potential.

"There is still a chance, but the last couple of races we made it a bit too easy for them," Vettel said.

"But also credit to them, they executed well and that's the name of the game.

"But we need to look after ourselves and do our bit the next couple of races and then we'll see."

Ferrari chief Maurizio Arrivabene suggested the qualifying error might have been down to the team lacking an "old hand" but Vettel is confident the Scuderia will learn from the mistake.

"I don't know exactly what he said, but we spoke internally about what happened," he said. "We were not happy with the result.

"What we did didn't work, so we review what we could have done better at the time and I'm sure next week in the quiet we will go through it again.

"If it's raining like that it's also a bit of a gamble. All of a sudden if the rain comes and we could manage half a lap with intermediates and the other half is full ran we look like geniuses and everybody else looks like idiots.

"It's always close, but for sure it is something we should have done better."

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