Vettel 'not stressing too much' despite recent Mercedes gains

Sebastian Vettel is "not stressing too much" about Ferrari's recent Formula 1 form despite seeing his championship lead shrink to just a single point.

Vettel's last win came two months ago in Monaco, with his advantage over Mercedes rival Lewis Hamilton being cut to just one point last time out at Silverstone.

Ferrari has struggled to match Mercedes' pace in recent races, losing more ground in the constructors' championship, placing a greater importance on this weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix.

The tight and twisting nature of the Hungaroring should suit Ferrari's SF70H car, meaning that a big result for Mercedes would likely spark concern for the Italian marque.

"I think I had a lot of tough races already in my past. I think it's normal that there's always talk about this race or the next race," Vettel said.

"You are coming up based on the race you had. I'm not stressing too much, on paper it should be a good race for us. Let's see how we get going.

"Certainly looking back Silverstone wasn't a great weekend for us, at the same time things were going quite good for Mercedes so I think it has been the other way around as well this year.

"As I said, not stressing too much. I like the track and just going to enjoy. Everyone here, we know what we have to do and that's what we plan to do."

When asked if Mercedes had done a better job than Ferrari in developing its car, Vettel said: "I can't disagree because it's based on the points that we have today.

"But I think we need to look at the races. We didn't get the best races maybe the last couple. Saying that I think we were very close to a win in Austria, I don't think we were lacking any speed there and that's only two races ago.

"Silverstone for sure was not the best weekend for us but sometimes shit hits the fan and then it's not so pleasant. In many ways it wasn't a good weekend for us. Obviously the last two laps didn't help but these things happen. Sometimes you suffer a puncture. It will not be the last one unfortunately in my life and it has happened to all of us.

"You have a lot of races, some will be better and some will be worse. Maybe they were not fantastic but I am very positive.

"We come here and we know the car is strong, we know we have a chance to fight for victory and that's good news.

"I think we should look at the positives rather than looking at just one race where things didn't go well for us and turned out to go well for them."