Ferrari make remarkable '300 per cent' claim on Red Bull

Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur has praised his squad's step forward this year despite enduring a rough period of late.

The Italian squad started the campaign as the clear second-fastest team but has slipped back in the pecking order with McLaren and Mercedes improving its form.

Despite its rough run of results compared to the competition, Ferrari has scored 117 more points compared to the same point last year.

At the beginning of the year, it appeared Red Bull would dominate its way to another championship before rival teams closed the gap.

“I think it's true that we had the first part of the season until China where Red Bull was flying,” Vasseur told media including RacingNews365.

"Then we had a good sequence for us with two or three wins, and then it was McLaren, and now it's Mercedes.”

Vasseur believes there are four teams in the championship fight as he highlighted the improvements his team has made in 12 months.

"I think that the four teams did a similar job,” he said. 

“It's not quite often that after 12 or 13 races you can have four teams in position to win the championship.

“I’m not a big fan of statistics, we scored something like 60 per cent more points than one year ago after 12 races or something like this.

"We reduced the gap by 300 per cent on Red Bull.”