Vettel: Ferrari deserve more credit for bridging Mercedes gap

Ferrari have successfully bridged the gap to Mercedes in 2017 and Sebastian Vettel feels they deserve more praise.

Sebastian Vettel believes Ferrari deserve more credit for bridging the gap to Mercedes in 2017 after years of Silver Arrows dominance.

Since 2014, the German outfit have been a class apart in Formula One, as Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg have shared the drivers' titles - the constructors' championship going Mercedes' way each year.

Ferrari have not been constructor champions since 2008 and have not had a driver on top of the standings since 2007, when Kimi Raikkonen won the second of his world titles.

The Finn's success marked the end of a run of six drivers' crowns in eight years, since then Red Bull and latterly Mercedes have dominated.

But this season Vettel leads the way by 12 points from Hamilton, while Ferrari are just eight adrift of the Silver Arrows in the constructor standings - something the German says should earn his team more praise.

"So far this season is really, really good for us," Vettel said. "Let's not forget that for the last three years Mercedes blew everyone else away. They improved their chassis quite a lot from 2014 to 2016 so as a team they have obviously grown a lot but so far this year we have been more or less the same on pace and l think that is more credit to us than them."

He added, "They've had that sort of development pace for the last couple of years, so it is more credit to us that we can go at their pace so far. This is a very important year for us. We are working well and things are coming together. We are starting to see some of the results of what we tried to put into place a while ago. Hopefully this is just the beginning and there is a lot more to come. I feel very comfortable."