MONTE CARLO, Monaco -- Sebastian Vettel says Ferrari had the pace to win at all five races this season but insists he is not worried about his missed opportunities so far.
Vettel has won two of the opening five races and arrives at the Monaco Grand Prix with a six-point advantage over Lewis Hamilton in the drivers' championship. When Vettel hasn't won this year he has always finished second, but he believes the Ferrari package has been good enough beat Mercedes every time.
"Well I think the most important is that we were there in all the five races and we could've won all five if things had ended up a bit differently, but they didn't," he said. "Sometimes you end up being on the luckier side, sometimes not. But I think we have a long season ahead of us so stuff like that we need to have, but as I said the most important is to stay there.
"We have scrappy Fridays, rough Saturdays but obviously in the race is what matters. But we have a strong package, a strong car, we're doing the right thing. We're not so worried. Yeah some points we deserved, but I think we got points we deserved so far and we need to do a better job overall, but I think we're ready to move forward, looking forward. "
But Vettel thinks Mercedes is still the ultimate reference point in Formula One and says it will be important for Ferrari to continue to develop its car to keep up.
"I think they're doing a good job. I think the whole team, both drivers, obviously it's been a bit more up and down for Valtteri [Bottas] this year, but overall we know with new regulations they're still the ones we need to beat.
"Obviously for us we're very happy that we had a great start to the season. Now we need to make sure that we stay there, and we are not being behind, we've levelled, which is obviously a lot better than previous years but still a long way to go."