Vettel: The atmosphere is very positive

Ferrari's 2016 car will be more evolution than revolution, Sebastian Vettel has revealed ahead of the 2015 season finale in Abu Dhabi and admits the mood at Maranello is more sedate than earlier this year.

With the German now at the wheel and new management in place, the Italian team surged back to top form this season, finishing second overall behind Mercedes.

"Their return to victory was important for me and all of formula one," F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone told La Gazzetta dello Sport this week.

But Vettel acknowledges that the next step - actually beating Mercedes to the title - is a big challenge for 2016.

"We know that Mercedes will also improve for next season," he said in Abu Dhabi. "It is not enough just to catch up, we have to do even more."

But that does not mean Ferrari will go radical for 2016, the German admitted, "The rules are not changing dramatically. So technically it will be more of an evolution of the current car."

Ferrari, however, is now working hard on the 2016 project, he added, "It's not so easy to make big steps during the season, so it's down to the winter to get the most out of it. This is our chance. We need to maintain our trend and make bigger steps than the others."

He said 2015 was about regrouping after the turmoil of 2014, with the new structure headed by boss Maurizio Arrivabene and technical chief James Allison now working smoothly.

"It is much quieter than it was a year ago," Vettel said. "We all know who is in charge and the mood in the team is good. The atmosphere is very positive."

"I think we had a great season, I think we can be extremely happy looking at the progress we made from the year before," he explained.

"This year we were able to improve the car significantly from last year, but we are not close enough yet, we’re still not the favorite and our target is to do a bigger step. I know what’s happening in Maranello and it looks very promising."

"The worst moment of the season was when I crashed against the barriers in Mexico, the best moment was in Malaysia: just two weeks before I had had my first race with Ferrari and two week later my first win, it was fantastic…" the four times worldchampion recalled fondly.