Vettel went into the tests fresh from a victory in the Hungarian Grand Prix which saw him go to the summer break with his lead over Mercedes rival Lewis Hamilton increased to 14 points.

In what has been a see-sawing battle between Vettel and Hamilton at the top of the points table through the opening half of the 2017 F1 season, Vettel’s Hungary followed Hamilton’s victory in Britain to make it four wins each for both drivers so far.

“The team is in a much better shape this year,” Vettel told Sky F1 on the final day of the Hungary test.

“If you have the right results coming your way you start to pick up a bit of momentum and so it’s up to us to keep it going. But I’m quite confident we have the right people, we know how to build a strong car, and we have improved the engine this year massively, so everything is going in the right direction.

“We will see in terms of time whether we will be ahead or behind but I’m confident we will be there and hopefully fight for a lot of big points.”

“We have been competitive everywhere...

“Now, it’s true to also say Mercedes here and there have been more competitive and we have been a little bit behind. We know what the car needs. It’s normal that from track to track there’s a little bit of a difference but that’s not our target.

“We want to be the best on every track we go to and we’re working on it. We have quite a good understanding of what the car needs and now we have a bit of time to look into a couple of things in a bit more peace and calm. But the most important thing is we know what we need.”