Vettel sure Ferrari will "fight Mercedes hard" eventually

Although the Italian squad appears to have taken a step forward in performance this year, both Vettel and teammate Kimi Raikkonen have retired one time each in the first two races of the season.

In Bahrain, Vettel did not even take the start after an engine problem on the formation lap.

But the four-time champion remains fully confident that Ferrari will be fighting for victory once it manages to sort out its problems.

"The performance is not yet what we wanted to be so you could say there are some negatives," said Vettel.

"But there's nothing that shakes me or makes me nervous for this season or the next couple of races because I know this team is very strong and I know that we can improve a lot so I know the potential is there.

"It's just a question of getting all the ingredients together, which will hopefully happen sooner rather than later, but I'm sure it will happen and I'm sure we will be in a strong position to fight Mercedes hard this year."

Bahrain retirement a freak accident

Vettel insisted the problem he suffered in Bahrain was caused by a set of bizarre circumstances, and he is optimistic it will not happen again.

"I think we understood. I'm not an engine specialist but as far as it was explained it was a rare combination of circumstances," he said.

"And that led to a big problem in the end. The consequence was huge which is a shame.

"It happens, we have to deal with it now. I don't think it's a big problem. Nothing changes for me.

"Obviously we have a new engine but there's a lot of races to go. It's a long season, we have to go step-by-step and see how it goes."