Despite four straight defeats to Mercedes in the first four races of the 2019 season, Sebastian Vettel says there is good reason to keep the faith in his Ferrari team.
After two promising weeks of pre-season testing, Ferrari was being billed as the team to beat in 2019. But four races later and Vettel is already 35 points adrift of championship leader Valtteri Bottas and 34 points adrift of defending champion Lewis Hamilton.
"Boring, boring," Vettel joked when asked about Mercedes' strong start to the year. "So boring, so boring... it's not just four races, it's been, what? Four years more or less.
"[We've got to] work harder. I think we're pushing as hard as we can but you've got to respect that they are doing phenomenally well and their car is most of the time in the right place. But I am confident and I believe in this team and know that we can improve."
Ferrari has shown promise during practice and qualifying in the opening four races but has failed to get the job done when it matters. Vettel is confident his team has the people to extract the true performance from the car, but admits it is unlikely to be a simple fix.
"I think we have a good car, we just don't always manage to put it where it belongs, so that is difficult to have the trust and the feel, but I'm sure it is going to turn around.
"It's like a Rubik's Cube, we just need to solve it. I think we have a lot of people that can do the Rubik's Cube under a couple of minutes, we have really clever people, but I think we are working on a large-size Rubik's Cube."